RedBird Capital have completed their acquisition of AC Milan and they must now get to work implementing their vision at the club, which includes growing revenues.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reports how one road to increase turnover is building and owning a new stadium, but unfortunately that idea still in a rather embryonic phase and there is not even any certainty as to when ground will break and where that ground will be.
The other path is sponsorships and exploiting the virtuous circle triggered a year ago by the return to the Champions League and now winning the Scudetto. The work of CEO Ivan Gazidis deserved credit for helping to bring on new partners and sponsors, which can now be pushed even further with the recent successes.
The latest addition is Konami, a gaming company that will enter the club’s list of Principal Partners starting from the beginning of July as the first Official Training Wear Partner, and then in February there was an agreement with Wefox who will be the first ever sponsor on the back of the shirt in the history of Milan.
Then there are Gatorade and Lete, the Expo 2020 Dubai (an event in which Milan also opened an academy for all children) and Sony Pictures. The partnerships with Google, Amazon, Apple music and Roc Nation show a desire to jump into a new age, with 27 partnerships signed in total since August 2020.
The latest budget showed that revenue was up over €17m compared to the previous year, but there is work to be done: RedBird must resume the talks over the renewal of the deals with Emirates as the main shirt sponsor (the current value of the agreement is €14m) and of the technical wear maker PUMA (€13m) with the hope of earning more.
Konamis soccer game sucks. I hope Milan gets paid good to wear that.