AC Milan have officially changed ownership with RedBird Capital taking over 99.97% of the shares from Elliott Management for €1.2bn.
MilanNews reports that it was an operation conducted by Gerry Cardinale – the founder of RedBird – but one which involves large American investors such as the New York Yankees, the Main Street Advisors group and others.
What should Milan expect from their new owners? Firstly their plan is to continue the good work done by Elliott in cleaning up the accounts with the aim to further expand the Rossoneri’s brand in the world and to unlock further revenues.
Then there is the vision of a new stadium which could take place independently from Inter in the area of Sesto San Giovanni where the former Falck steel works were. Cardinale has already visited the site in recent months and believes it to be a good location.
As mentioned the goal is to increase brand power which then increases revenues, which will be reinvested into the first team and improving all the infrastructure of the club. To be further competitive in Italy and in Europe, Milan need more money coming in to have greater spending power in the transfer market.
The model to follow is that of Liverpool or Bayern Munich and not either PSG or Manchester City, because the latter two have immeasurable wealth whereas to Milan’s new owners money matters and has an important value.
This does not mean that in the future when Milan are back among the elite in terms of revenues that they will still say no to making big-money signings though, but for now the youth project will remain the focus.
