Gerry Cardinale has spoken about how owning AC Milan has given him a level of stress that is unlike anything that he has experienced before in his many ventures.
Indeed, the word Cardinale associated with the first two years of his experience at the helm of Milan was ‘stress’ Interviewed by GQ (via Radio Rossonera) for a special on the purchase of sports teams in general, the number one of RedBird outlined what it is really like.
In addition to Milan, Cardinale spoke about what the future of investment funds and private equity funds could be in sports.
Below, the interview conducted before, during and after the Champions League match between Milan and Paris Saint-Germain in November last year.
Less than two years after the acquisition of AC Milan, the American businessman revealed how he is finding the experience of owning a European football team, Italian obviously in this case.
“It stresses me out, to be honest with you, in a way that I’ve never experienced before. My thing was always to look at sport as any other industry. You could be manufacturing widgets in Omaha or you could be owning the Giants in New York City. It should be the same,” he said.
“It’s stressful to own things in general, it’s stressful to put this kind of money to work, it’s stressful to be a fiduciary for third-party capital. I now have a new level of stress I’ve not experienced before. It bothers me.”
Shortly before the chat with Cardinale, the journalist who did the interview told Cardinale that he had met Alfredo, the owner of a house in Milan (which the journalist was renting).
He is a fanatic of the Rossoneri with a house full of memories and memories including DVDs and old pages of the La Gazzetta dello Sport. This is why Cardinale nicknamed his stress ‘Alfredo’.
Cardinale hypothesised a future not only for sport, but for the world of investments regarding the role of private equity funds.
“There is no analytical rigour in the evaluations of a sports team: they are worth what one is willing to pay. Will Jeff Bezos buy an NFL team? Probably.
“He could buy the entire League if he wanted… If the guys from Silicon Valley don’t do it first. The next step up in terms of paying capacity is hedge funds, private equity funds – my world, all the finance and investment and Wall Street people.
“A risky system? It’s the right question to ask. We are talking about a flow that will not stop: once capitalism gets involved, there is no way to moderate it.
“We are moving towards the corporate ownership model. It’s an arms race, and it will continue to be. Capitalism will find its way into the cracks.”
That’s the problem with capitalism..no moderation. That’s why murica became such a giant shîthole. They were better off 40 years ago
It’s just the different stages of capitalism. It kind of works if there is good regulation, like there is in some European countries (but weakening all the time), but as it is it will all eventually implode and we’ll have to start again, depending on what that implosion looks like it could get extremely ugly.
I’m not sure on that.
True capitalism is you win by making money.
If the valuation of the project dips below what was invested (and can sell it for), you lose. This in a true capitalistic market happens when your product becomes cheap and no one wants to buy it or the converse it’s too expensive and people can’t afford it.
I my opinion, hedgefunds looking to make a buck are starting to look at high level teams and saying maybe we should look elsewhere. Look at the backlash the ManU group as one example. The product they are fielding on the pitch isn’t meeting the purchasers standards which causes valuation loss.
That is how true capitalism works.
We will see how this story plays out as well.
Oh poor Gerry!
It’s stressful having you own the team when as you say you have no money
“It’s stressful to be a fiduciary for third-party capital.”
and no it is not the same as any other industry, it is unique in that fans support a club not customers
If there was ever any doubt this guy has no clue what he is doing, well he has said it himself here.
Sell the club on Gerry, go back to wall street
Lol, sell to who? “Arabs”? Don’t you know that a sovereign wealth fund is third-party capital? Just a lot more of it. So structurally it’s the same sh!t. And technically you’re then playing with the people’s money, not PE funds, so it ought to be even more tightly controlled and not spent on sports teams. But, again, we’re talking oil money, so it’s almost unlimited.
He means he is in debt to a 3rd party.
Because they could not afford to buy the club.
So like Man Utd they will have to continue paying interest on that loan unless they get an investor.
The “Arabs” or whoever can actually afford to buy the club would not have this problem.
What a lovely person this guy is. You can see dollars in his eyes. At least he’s honest. This guy has as much passion and excitement for sports than a teapot. Or maybe I’m wrong and the manufacture of widgets has a huge fanbase of life-long passionate fans, like the NY Giants or Milan. Hopefully he’ll get his beloved money soon and get tf out of here.
Stress?? SELL to the PIF then! We wouldn’t want poor Gerry stressed out now would we?? LOL
He is a fan of the diavolo, and yet he did not know about the number ic CL’s the club has amassed. 😳☹️🧐
Or is he a new fan fanatic
Just another murican paper chasing clown turning his asset into a cheap fast food franchise for generic crowd.
There’s no way Gerry is even considering selling until after the stadium is built. GerryOut minions better buckle up…