Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital is at work to put together his ideal team of collaborators for AC Milan moving forward, and a new name has emerged.
Today’s edition of La Repubblica (via MilanLive) talks about Cardinale’s mission to increase revenues and the exposure of the Milan brand worldwide in the near future, and that leads to Mark Dowley’s possible arrival at the club.
He is perhaps a little-known name in Italian football but he is well established in the arena of American sport business. Dowley is a partner of RedBird and therefore Cardinale knows him well, and above all he is a man who has generated sponsors and partnerships.
In the past, Dowley has signed media partnerships with the NBA, the Premier League and MLB, but also commercial agreements with international stars of the caliber of Rolling Stones, Jay Z and LeBron James.
He helped Lady Gaga become the creative director of Polaroid, paired Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Laird Hamilton and Shaun White with American Express and also put together Ellen DeGeneres with Vitamin Water.
Most recently Dowley conceived a virtual sports stadium in support of Delete Blood Cancer, an initiative of DKMS. The M. Harf Stadium, named for Mechtild Harf – the beloved wife of DKMS Founder Peter Harf – was created online to extend what was a terrestrial event at Yankee Stadium into the digital space.
Dowley’s task will be to work on new luxury partnerships between Milan and international brands or companies so as to develop collaborations and events that raise revenues. Cardinale wants to increase the economic importance of Milan because under the current rules this is the only way that the club can think of competing with Europe’s elite.
