Gerry Cardinale has a next step in mind when it comes to the commercial growth of AC Milan and the plans for the club to become as self-sustainable as possible.
La Gazzetta dello Sport outlined Milan’s path from making nearly €200m in losses to what is projected to be a profit for the 2022-23 season, talking about how a boost in revenues from the Champions League journey plus new deals with sponsors like PUMA and Emirates helped.
The ‘great challenge’ of Cardinale’s ownership is closely connected to the ability to bring Milan, in the medium-long term, to a turnover of €500m. For context, in the first six months of 2022-23 they amassed €144m in revenues.
It will not be easy to repeat the run to the UCL semi-finals every season, so a new stadium is crucial to reaching that €500m target given that most projections believe it will bring in around €80m per year minimum.
On-field success is key in maintaining constant access to international markets and the continuation of growth in sponsorship deals. Monetising the redevelopment of the brand is key, as it went from €153m in 2021 to €358m in 2023, according to Brand Finance.
The better you play the better sponsorship deals you get. That’s the same in every sport. Winners get the best deals.
How to become a winner. Or a serial winner, as we’d all like Milan to become. Now that’s a challenge with many paths to try to achieve
You’re right. Which is why playing in every edition of the Champions League is the most important goal from a sporting and commercial perspective.
But he can’t possibly make the club more successful commercially AND on the pitch!! They are diametrically opposed ideals and one can only be achieved at the expense of the other! This is surely a sign that we will never be a good team, just a soulless financial powerhouse 😢😭
I’m 90% sure you’re being sarcastic, but I just want to check…
Absolutely, yes haha
Yeah, the guys is braindead, he can ‘t even make the correct point when trying to be sarcastic and insult people.
You’re a clown.
Yeah yeah, sure. I’ll pay for an IQ test for you and well publish it online, what do you say? I am ready to prove that you are verifiably as dumb as a rock. Let me know when you are ready, empty-head.
Man you keep embarrassing yourself. You sound like some Redbird’s PR guy all over again. We understood that you only root for UCL qualifications, good for you.
What this ownership is only talking about since they fired Maldini is brand, commercial success, stadium, etc. Fine, this is not our concern as fans, we are not accountants, we leave that to the experts in Casa Milan and we trust them because it was on a very good way prior to Cardinale’s arrival. Of course they can say whatever they want, they can say they will go after the best free agents ever seen in the history of football, to please the fans. What we can see is that they fired the two best recruiters in the club and they are losing on the free agency. And they don’t want to spend money to recruit key players. Milan did that these last years, see how much did cost Theo, Leao, Tonali, etc. when the club was financially way more constraint than it is now. Milan could spend some money to compete for trophies. We could sign Milinkovic-Savic for the same price than Leao’s a few years ago, and his higher salary would be fine since Milan makes more money now than it did at the time.
I would love to be proved wrong and that Gundogan, Thuram and other prime players arrive. From what we can see currently, it’s just cheap chat.
Say whatever you like but the simple fact is the more profitable we become, the more money will be available for transfers and wages. Full stop: I have been watching Milan religiously since I was 13 in 1998. I’ve seen the highs and the lows. What I want for my club is to return to being mentioned among the elite clubs today. There’s only so much money to go around, so if the choice is spend money on transfers to try and build the best team for next season OR spend money on a stadium which will increase revenues and allow us to be more competitive in the market for the next twenty seasons, I choose the latter. Fans are passionate but they are short sighted as well at times. When this conversation is revisited in 2026 after the settlement agreement with UEFA has ended, we will see who is right and who is embarrassed.
It’s important to actually know what you’re talking about. In 19/20 when we brought Kessie, Theo, Bennacer and Leao here we had a net spend of 64m euro because we also made sales. Last season we had a net spend of 56m euros with no sales and have only the performances of Thiaw to show for it. So your assertion that the club was investing much more in transfers a few years ago is not correct, we just also made sales and we got good value from the players.
Trophies alone will not bring in the cash to compete with the elite clubs. Branding, stadium, sponsorships…all the things you despise, are what will allow Milan to spend heavily on transfers.
By 2026 our best players will be long gone because Theo, Leao, Mike won’t stay at the club playing for three times less money than elsewhere and competing for a UCL spot every year because they are surrounded by pedestrian free agents and cheap players. So we will have to buy 100M guys to become relevant again.
We are relevant right now! Thanks to the strong core built by Maldini. Do you think Maldini and Massara, who were well aware of the financial situation, wanted to go after Milinkovic-Savic and Berardi this summer by taking the risk to sink the club again? Despite what fat fck Scaroni says, Maldini would have been useful to talk to ND1cka, Thuram, Tielemans. Of course it’s not 100% sure that he would have signed them all, but at least he would have gave more chances than we have actually.
Yes yes yes .Maldini the greatest DS in world . Gery should give Maldini contract as long as he is alive with clause cannot be sacked. Are you satisfied now ? You keep repeat every article with your bla bla bla Maldini this maldini that , do you worship him ? So Maldini now are bigger than AC Milan ? Because from your opinion it seems without Maldini that AC Milan will fall down or get relegated. Do you think other person cannot become good DS ? . Now every comment section full of AC Milan fans vs Maldini fans . Do you afraid if AC Milan win scudetto or CL next season that ppl here will forget about maldini sacked so you hoping ACM failed ?
@Reccaman
What are we talking about here? What’s best for 7-time UCL winner Milan.
Let aside the complete lack of consideration and respect with Maldini’s firing, he was also the best DS for Milan, because of who he is and the job he’s done. We discussed it for over a week now, it’s common knowledge that many key players wouldn’t be here today without him, because they wouldn’t joined in the first place or they wouldn’t have resigned for their current salary when they could get way more elsewhere. His firing is a turnaround, the proof that there is no more sporting ambition other than trying to qualify for UCL. Jerry and his clowns confirmed that, only speaking about brand, stadium, revenues, and explaining their “parametro zero” strategy, the same strategy that made Milan a liability during Berlusconi’s last years as the owner.
Don’t you think this Milan team couldn’t compete for the scudetto with some help? Or maybe you’re one of the very patient fans that think Milan will be good again when we got a new stadium in 2028 or 2029. I would love to see Milan win its 8th UCL before I’m dead.
In the end, I agree with Flossonero, Milan needs UCL qualification every year. And winning the scudetto grants you UCL qualification.
How do you know that? By 2026, all those players will leave?
Dude , maldini just an employers. Coach,player,director come and go but AC Milan still in there. Even elliot want to sacked maldini & replace him with rangnick but pioli squad lucky win after ibra come save maldini job ( boban get sacked by elliot ) . Then elliot waiting patient until maldini contract expire but too bad pioli squad win scudetto so they dont have choice renew maldini till 2025 . Owner change to Redbird , look like the new owner disappoint with last season signing like florenzi,junior messias,dest,aster,origi,cdk more angry after that failure maldini asking full control power in transfer like galliani in past. Since owner buying AC Milan with big money ,they have rights to sacked employers like maldini
@flossonero.
NY Yankees, a historic Brand like ours.. has all of it.. Money, Stadium, TV rights that EPL clubs can dream of… guess what they won since 2009.
Yep.. NOTHING!
The goal, for a sports club.. Should be sporting success! PERIOD. When it becomes money.. it becomes a feeder club.
We have NO ONE in this Milan management who would even talk/plan about Sporting successes.
“There’s only so much money to go around, so if the choice is spend money on transfers to try and build the best team for next season OR spend money on a stadium which will increase revenues and allow us to be more competitive in the market for the next twenty seasons, I choose the latter.”
That’s NEVER Happened in Any Club before, isn’t happening, will never Happen. NO OWNER Ever plans for 20 years, EVER. Do you know why? In layman’s terms.. After a season ends, most owner puts the unspent surplus revenue straight into their own account instead of the clubs. The amount of Money they take for themselves depends on how ambitious the owner is. If the owner is ambitious and rich, they won’t take a penny, instead, they will re-invest it all in the next season and let the club fund build over time.
As a Milan ‘fan’ yourself.. what do you think our lil Gerry is gonna do? Reinvest the money in Milan for the next 20 seasons? Lmfao You wanna lick Cardinale’s boots, that’s between you and your tongue. Just Don’t give us fans your bull$hit excuses. Some of us know exactly how football works.
Cardinale even picked the worst possible spot for the stadium. do you know why Elliot never went for San Donato? It only allows a 40k stadium. San Siro will bring more revenue than that every season with a 70k capacity despite the rent amount.
The only possible reason this fck’n american money-pi_G is going for San Donato is to add to the valuation of Milan to show his investors. He doesn’t care that Milan earns more revenue in San Siro. Now why is Adding to Milian’s valuation matters more to him than revenue? Well.. here comes economics. Increasing the value of the club means Investors just made more money on their investment. That’s about it. Milan’s revenue will get a significant hit.. so what? investors made more money.. that’s all that matters to your boyfriend Gerry!
You seriously believe people can just withdraw money from a football club?
Just as, for example, Musk can just withdraw 69million form tesla whenever his pipi gets hard, right?
They just walk in and go. This is mine. Gimme.
Right?
Jesus!
And you believe the money a business makes, just lays around in the business’s account yeah without the owner ever claiming it? lol
Which planet do you live in?
As for Musk.. That’s exactly what he can do, he doesn’t even need his pipi to get hard for that. Any revenue tesla makes, belongs to musk and the stakeholders. They can choose to either reinvest it, or keep it for themselves.
“You seriously believe people can just withdraw money from a football club?
Just as, for example, Musk can just withdraw 69million form tesla whenever his pipi gets hard, right?”
This! Most people here have no clue how these things work.
Dude, Flossonero won’t reply because you wrote facts. That brain dead can’t understand most of. He has his inner reality and he thinks the world works like that, just yesterday he was trying to make a point how clubs shouldn’t invest by saying that PSG is forced to sell their biggest stars. 100% made up, he is too low of an IQ to discuss something with him. He will just make up something and try to push it as the truth. The problem is that he doesn’t think those are lies, something is seriously wrong with him. A
Not one mention of WINNING TITLES – just becoming debt free and profitable LOL. What ambition from a business/profit perspective – BUT from a SPORTING perspective of one of the most prestigious clubs in the world – SHAMEFUL. News flash. We will be never become debt free under Redbird. Keep on drinking the kool aid – they have you brainwashed. Fools honestly think if we miraculously became debt free we would start spending $$$ on players lol. Ya right. PROFIT is the only motivation and goal w this group. This is the Redbird/Elliot way. Welcome to the new AC Milan
@Flossonero is a huge Redbird lover. Clown city.
Well said @Bartholomeo.
Guaranteed we sell Leao to PSG if not this summer for sure next. That’s how he will raise revenues lol. Selling our star players
I am a Milan fan. I can see past next season and I see good things for the club with new stadium
And TV deals. Grow up.
He is a Milan fan with the Atalanta fan mentality. The kind that will be happy with 4th spot and selling big players to buy more kids to develop. Nightmare for Milan fans, at leaast real ones.
Signing Christian Pulisic would be a good start.
Signing Kamada would be a good start for Japan Market.
You and @Bartholomeo should stop with this name-calling, ridiculing and characterization. We’re all allowed our opinions and we can disagree without being rude to each other.
Unfortunately many commentors on this site confuse opinion with facts and that is the cause of such friction. Sadly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to have a mature, logical conversation about our team on here.
Yeah, there is a lot of passion here nowadays. But I’m pretty sure I deliver my opinion with courtesy, unless you consider “Redbird PR guy” as an insult haha
Please illuminate all of us with your infinite maturity.
Maturity is when, you support AC Milan as a team.. Not because of Maldini or Cardinale!
Man do you always claim stuff like you’re all-knowing and the original truth teller? I actually started to root for Milan because of Sheva and Maldini when I was a kid, but it’s pointless. I support Milan for a while now, I was there during the Banter era as all of us and I’m worried that we could fade again with this new strategy. But maybe you were the first tifoso ever when the club was created in 1899 and you can explain to all of us how fans should act and think?
@Bartholomeo Instead of overeating, to Maldini’s sacking and hope that the club fails, just to put all blame on Cardinale, we should support them unconditionally! Directors, owners and players will come and go, Milan will be here forever.. And no, i am not the, first tifosi since the club was created in 1899!
I suppose you couldn’t resist taking a shot in your response (“Please illuminate all of us with your infinite maturity.”) but you kind of proved my point.
Guilty, I couldn’t resist highlighting your condescension. I’ll get in touch with my lawyer. See you in court haha
Yes exactly! Nowadays, here fans are divided.. It’s all about, Maldini vs Cardinale! And fans choosing to, support individuals, instead of staying united..
I agree. Healthy discourse is valuable but all our goals should be the same and that should be to see a successful Milan. Surprising how many people are hoping for failure in an effort to punish ownership. The new ownership has not changed the plan from Elliott but an overreaction to the sacking of M&M made people lose perspective.
The whole reasoning is complex. I think ppl took sides because of the confusion around the why for the sacking (which didn’t make sense from a results or financial pov), where we were then compared to now, what the individual represented for Milan and the manner of the sacking.
So what happens now is the new management has to not make any mistakes or moves similar to M&M in the transfer market or else they’d be crucified. Eg they miss a freebie, then the argument piles up in favour of M&M. They sign a good target, they look favourable and it’s going to continue like that unfortunately (I’m not absolving myself as but js)
Yes.. 500m is the goal. Not UCL, Not scudetto, Not sporting successes… But Money.
WHO COULD’VE PREDICTED THAT ABOUT OUR LIL GERRY?!
With few exceptions, financial success go hand-in-hand with sporting success in modern sports. Not sure why you see the two things as mutually exclusive?
Cause facts doesn’t matter, to some..
Here is an additional fact that you will like:
High revenue is source for transfer and salary budget needed to compete for top trophies. In short, it is the foundation of sporting success.
100%
@Honest Truth. I really don’t see it that way. I very much agree that financial success go hand-in-hand with sporting success in modern sports. You are very much correct on that one.
But when a club owner keeps making decisions based on financial success only while excluding any plans for sporting success, its only natural that some fans will be frustrated specially after we just passed one hell of a Banter Era and question Cardinale’s intention. Turns out, we are right. He is here for Money. That’s about it. Cardinale making Money.. and Milan Making money.. most fans are confusing those two. It’s Not the same my friend.
Lets look objectively,
0. Billy Beane got Cardinale interested in football, only because Billy beane showed him theres money to be made in football by player trading. Cardinale said it himself when he bought Toulouse in interviews. Cardinale’s history at Toulouse is sus as well. Dude sold every player who even played well in Toulouse EVERY season.
1. Cardinale didn’t appoint a SD to replace the old SD. No one in this club can argue with Cardinale for Sporting success anymore because everyone is a yes man.
2. The goal has now become 500mili earnings, instead trophies and successes. Do you see other clubs declaring that as their target? Like in your entire history of being a football fan, have to read any such article about ANY other club? Even the small ones?
3. The guy opening put every player in our club into transfer list. Every knows that every player is sellable. Why instruct that to your management openly?
4. Cardinale picked the worst possible area for Milan stadium because it will get done quickly and increase the value of Milan at the cost of a substantial revenue hit.
5. We are only going for free transfers and failing miserably at that as well. We wont even invest 10/20 mil anymore. That doesn’t look like an owner serious about winning to me.
This are basically my reasons why I. think Cardinale is all about Money! Plus.. his history at Toulouse. I know some fans don’t agree with me. But thinking redbird is some sort of savior for Milan without A single reason to back that up.. is not correct either.
Thank you for the well laid response. I fear the media has a lot to do with what is being conveyed to the fans. I cannot imagine for an instance that Cardinale or the organization’s only goal is financial. In fact, and please do not ask me to pull it up because I am far too lazy, I am pretty sure I read about his sporting targets/goals. Most sporting organizations have both financial measures of success and sporting ones. They often go hand-in-hand but the targets are different because they are measured differently. What I am seeing lately is a flood of articles that choose a specific narrative and report on that. In this particular article, the focus is on financial targets but that does not mean there aren’t sporting targets that they are striving to achieve. Now, to your specific points:
1) They did replace the SD with a different management structure. Instead of having an individual they now have a council of sorts ultimately led by either Furlani or Moncada. I don’t think you can assume a change in structure suggests a removal of any counter views.
2) I can’t say I have but not have I really looked. Again, all I can assume is that the media has a narrative to push and they are doing so. I can’t necessarily disagree with you otherwise.
3) I have not read any club employee being quoted as saying that. At the risk of sounding like Donald Trump, I blame the media for this
4) You can argue San Donato is a great choice based on location, limited opposition and that it is already zoned for sporting use. This site has actually done a good job of covering the pros and cons of each location. I doubt it was solely about speed.
5) The transfer window has yet to open so we know nothing other than speculation. We will find out eventually but rumours should be taken lightly.
I for one, don’t think Redbird is a savior, nor was I anti-Maldini. I just can understand the decisions that are being made and will wait to see what happens before passing judgement.
Hey we are all fans, a good discussion without personal insults is always a good thing. No need for thanks mate.
You are correct, there is a lot of bias in the media. Both for Cardinale and against Cardinale. We as fans will always have to look further back to find out statistics and data that is laid in the past to have somewhat alright prediction of the future.
As you said, media have lots of random stuff printed to get views as this is a hot topic to Milan fans. But in retrospective, If Cardinale’s sporting target really was anything substantial, at least it would reflect in the media somewhat more than the current silence I believe. So it is safe to assume there is none compared to the amount of decision made regarding financial success that is directly aimed to fill Cardinale’s coffers instead of Milan’s is insanely high.
No owner with any sporting sense would employ a completely nobody like Furlani as the head and we can speculate that furlani won’t make any decision, it will be cardinale. We can just look at Furlani’s history and the positions he had held before. Furlani is clearly a yes man in my opinion.
1) The reason I think that removing the position of SD means sporting decisions are now irrelevant. The sole purpose of that position is to validate a decision based on it’s sporting merit. What I am trying to say is.. There is no one in the club who can do that right now. The official designation matters very little.
2) Gazetta is one of the figuratively more reliable sources of information so I tend to believe they are somewhat credible than the rest of the tabloids. So there can be some truth. I mean such news didn’t circulate about other clubs atfer their ownership changed, not even as rumors.
3) We can blame the media for sure. media is rumors indeed without evidence. In football, most news are rumors till it happens anyway. So how do we know.. Which one has the chances of being credible? the rumors that are most circulated. At least that’s how I view news media when it comes to football unless official news confirms it or romano confirms it.
4) For a stadium, the first Metric should be capacity as revenue will be directly proportional to it, at least it was for all other clubs, even for Milan under Elliot. Elliot considered a lot of choices and 3 were debated, San Siro renovating, the Cathedrale at sesto, and a few locations with small spaces like San donato. Spots like Donato were rejected for capacity issue. And San siro was a bureaucratic hell, so sesto was the choice. Now we are back to Donato. Revenue from tickets will take a hit. But Cardinale will make money because ANY stadium we build, may it be a 10k capacity, it will raise the value of teh club substantially. “great choice based on location” is a total eyewash. Location will mean very little when capacity is short. There will be no opposition either as management is full of yes man. Aka, Cardinale will make a lot of money out of it but Milan, will take a direct revenue loss.
5) True, but the free transfers worth going for are getting locked in before the transfer window even opens.
In the end, those are my opinions tho. Nothing confirmed yet. But I don’t think media has any reason to go for a smear campaign against Cardinale. So at least the widespread news about Milan management has a high probability of being true.
I know my friend. It’s a breath of fresh air to discuss with someone who can see things from a neutral point of view. Hard to find here in this blog.
Man UTD are abt to be bought by Arabs. We love Ac Milan. We want to see the old Ac Milan, early 2000 Ac Milan. We miss that. We were going in the right direction being led by Maldini. Maldini understands football. He knew an unpolished diamonds. I had so much faith in Maldini. We as fans, wish Ac Milan can play beautiful football like Man City. Arabs have invested alot in Man City. They are reaping the rewards now. Investcorp would have invested way more than Redbird. I know there’s Financial fair play. We went progressed to Semi finals of UCL. There should be more money for investing in players. I am just so disappointed with dismissal of Maldini and I feel like this is a set back. Maldini alone was a motivation to these guys during practices and matches. We will see the impact of him not being there when the season resumes. Cardinalle out#
@Milan4lyf
Not sure why the commenting platform won’t let me reply directly but here is my response.
Based on most sporting structures, no DS works in a vacuum. What I mean by that, is though they may run their department they are not the sole decision maker. I personally believe his influence on player signings and transfers has been considerably overstated. He was a legend of a player but if his product (Milan in this case) is less desirable than another club, his influence will be minimal. All things being equal, it may matter but sports these days is a business so I doubt he has the impact most on here seem to think he had. That said, this is my opinion and no way for us to know because we are not part of the discussions with all players. Theo made it seem like he was the biggest factor in joining Milan but is suspect the media overplayed that one too. He was a relatively unproven backup at Real at the time so really didn’t need to be sold too much, did he?
As for the stadium, I will agree if it turns out capacity will be less than 60k spectators but I will wait for confirmation on that. I will be hugely disappointed if that were the case but I doubt it.
Anyway, I think we will have to agree to disagree on most points but hopefully next season starts off well so we can all breath a little easier.
We will definitely agree to disagree. We can debate whether Maldini as a SD was successful or not. You can do your best to nullify Maldini’s credit and I can do my best to refute that. None of that changes the fact that Cardinale’s decision making is absolutely geared towards making Money with an absolute disregard towards sporting successes so far.
I’m confused that there are a lot of hate for Cardinale because of this article. He is building a foundation for sporting success. Milan-owned stadium, huge revenue streams, global brand, etc, if he can bring all that to Milan, Milan can compete for top-level trophies without money injected by owner.
That’s why reading is fundamental.. I bet these, guys commented without, even reading the article..
True own stadium generates revenue.
But global brand doesn’t come just like that, having big former cljb legends like Maldini,Zlatan ,Nesta,baresi,shev will pull lot of attention to the club and continous participation in ucl atleast playing semis,final or winning.
All these gets you brand image.
Our global revenue has increased by 139m to 380m in last 4years.
Sacking Maldini does lot of damage to the club than Cardinale, cause he will just sell the club to some other if he is not success in his methods
You people are supporting à cause but you are supporting à person who is doing opposite.
Sending Maldini home with à Nice press meet for the work he has done have made à positive Outlook from outside and for fans.
Sacking after winning scudetto, champions league semi final is not justified as well. Especially when you are doing to à club legend like Maldini who spent 30years in 120years of club. That huge amount of time, especially for the person who won 5 out 7champions league.
If they can sack à huge club legend like this, there is no brand value. You are making the ship sinking rather than pushing it further more
More than half of team joined Milan because of Maldini and you keep the coach who is not impriving young players anymore
Where is truth that justify the Maldini sacking? If its just the last year spending then Pioli has to be sacked inclusively with Maldini to not using Young players to the system they are used to do than playing completely different roles and not giving any chances