In recent months, there has been no shortage of rumours regarding Gerry Cardinale and his ownership situation with regards to AC Milan.
There has been speculation that he is in talks to sell a stake in the club, but Corriere dello Sport (via MilanNews) state that they had an ‘informal chat’ with the founder and leader of RedBird Capital about his plans for Milan.
The American has no intention of selling Milan, who he considers the best of all the investments of his 30-year career as an entrepreneur in the sports industry .
RedBird’s work is there for all to see as they recorded a profit in the accounts for 2022-23 – the first for 17 years – while the current management generated €78m in cash without selling players.
This year – with the group stage exit from the Champions League – revenues will obviously be lower, but Milan aim to stabilise between €50-100m per year in positive cash, to be reinvested in the squad.
Cardinale’s goal is to increase the sporting value of the Milan team a little every year for the next five years. When the new stadium is also available, we can aim to go from €100-250m per year in cash to invest on the market.
According to Cardinale, Milan are still an ‘undersized asset’ despite being one of the best-known European football brands in the world. To bring the club back to the top, victories are needed, but it is essential to give continuity to these victories.
There is no point in winning a league title or a cup competition to then disappear from the top the following year: a top club needs to remain at the top consistently.
Then there is the stadium project which will bring important new revenues. In recent weeks, Milan have taken concrete steps towards the construction of a new home in San Donato.
RedBird are ready to invest a lot to build the most modern entertainment facility in Europe, redeveloping an entire neighbourhood in the process.
In addition to staying at Milan for a long time, Cardinale is also aiming for the growth of Italian football: “Me and De Siervo [CEO of Serie A] finally understood each other, and he understood that in the USA I can lend a hand.
“With ESPN, Amazon, Fox and all the majors I have been doing business successfully for years. My experience and my relations with the media are a resource that can be strategic for Serie A.”
In recent months there has also been a lot of media speculation on the vendor loan that is owed to Elliott Management as agreed at the time of the takeover.
“I worked for 20 years at Goldman Sachs. Does anyone really think I’m so naive as to take on a debt to be repaid in just 18 months? Elliott has done a great job in restructuring the club, I’m the one who asked him to stay on board.”
The chat ended like that because Cardinale is leaving for the Middle East, which is a fundamental area for him and where there are many investors. But, he was keen to reiterate that his plans include the desire to remain at the helm of Milan for a long time.
Cue inane comments about wanting to punch him in the face…
I was literally thinking the same thing! Brace yourself for comments like:
He doesn’t know what he’s doing , man! Absolutely clueless man. No idea how to run a business, let alone come up with money to buy the damn club and eliminate all its debt….
LOL!!!
Good for you if you agree with Cardinale that “running a sport franchise is no different than a widget factory”. All hail the glorious Wall Street greedy brokers because they are making this world a better place.
Maybe he knows how to run business but running football club is different. If you do not know anything about football, you never watched game before, you never play football, even in a school… you can not run club. At least what he can do, let people who knows this sport, to run a club. Simple as that.
Good point. There is no reason to win 1 trophy and then to fall apart.
One step at the time . This season team is stronger and we don’t have loaned players. In champions league players missed some good chances what affect to drop at third positions.
Still there are some chances to take 2nd spot in serie a and final in europa league.
“RedBird’s work is there for all to see as they recorded a profit in the accounts for 2022-23 – the first for 17 years – while the current management generated €78m in cash without selling players.”
22/23 accounts and balance was Elliott doing. This guys hasn’t shown anything yet but to sack the management that brought us Scudetto and sell fan favourite.
Thanks for spending $100m this year on Puli, RLC and Reinjders Mr Cardinale. You could have pocketed that money.
Thanks for adding Jovic, Okafur and Chuk for depth. Yeah Chuk is something of a bust but nobody is perfect
Tha is for investing in our future with Musah. You could have pocketed that money too.
We’ve withstood a defensive injury crisis this year and stand on the precipice of 2nd place in part due to the investments you made
Gratitude costs nothing and need not be financed.
Stockholm syndrome here. Unless you’re one of the investors in Redbird, I would understand your point then.
Jerry can’t take the money from the club to enrich himself. He didn’t invest his personal money either. What he can do though, is selling the current assets (like Tonali) and using the revenues from previous successful seasons to claim that he’s investing in the team. As long as the club is “sustainable”, with a brand new stadium and some real estate, he’ll be able to resell the club for probably 100% profit, which is considerable.
@Bartholomeo, you seem extra clueless and I feel bad for you. You should really stick to washing dishes or something else because it’s clear you have ZERO clue how business works. Your posts are really idiotic, on another level actually.
Selling assets? He sold one player who wasn’t worth anywhere near what Milan got for him – it was a genius move for Milan. Not to mention Tonali is suspended from futbol for gambling – that makes it even more of a genius move. WOW, you are clueless!
Please don’t respond to this, we don’t need any more idiotic posts from you.
A duck that aspires to be a swan doesn’t know it’s a duck. You know what I mean?
Overconfident, aggressive and rude, biased opinion, no facts, are you Donald Trump?
Jerry buys shares of companies to make their value grow and sell for profit. He’s here to build a stadium, he says that almost every day. With a stadium, the club is more valuable (value is speculative), so he can sell and enjoy the profit. Wins, trophies? Scaroni said we play for 4th place, which is a funny thing to say when you’re just out of UCL with some of the top players in the world at their position.
Maybe you think Tonali was not worthy, which is obviously your very own opinion that most media experts and the front office of Newcastle don’t share. Jerry and co were lucky that he got suspended so they look like geniuses, now let’s see how they will justify selling Mike or Theo or Bennacer or Leao next summer. Enjoy UEL guys!
In your analysis he would then have to replace existing players with players who are more valuable. Capital assets that fill the new capital asset – new stadium.
If the new players are therefore more valuable than the old players …
If Milan valuation doubles to 2.4bn as you suggest then ACM must be a top team in Europe again.
I fail to see the mismatch is your projection of Cardinale’s motives and the health of the club.
I don’t know from Cardinale and really don’t much care except that I’ve grown weary of all the moaning when there are 6 months of data that appears largely positive.
You are contradicting yourself AGAIN. Your point is that Cardinale is a finance guy, not interested in Milan success so long as there are profits and sustainability.
YET, “selling the fan favorite” brought in MORE goals this season than Tonali ever contributed in RLC and Pulisic to name a few.
NOT TO MENTION, that had Tonali stayed, our midfield would have been a GIANT BLACK VOID given his suspension.
So in fact, this team HAS improved under Gerry’s watch. So can you stop now with the bullsh*t?
👍
With out money ….another clown!!
Anyone who thinks Cardinale doesn’t want best for Milan is an idiot and clearly doesn’t understand business side of things. Futbol is a business and Berlusconi left a huge financial mess that caused Milan to lose a lot of money every year. Elliott cleaned it up and then sold the club to Cardinale who will further improve it. Some of you here are so clueless it’s laughable – you complain and call Cardinale names and want him out while you know nothing about running a business, less so running one of the most successful clubs in the world. Reality is that if the club doesn’t turn profit, it will slowly degrade and fall down, just like Milan did before Elliott took over. All you do is complain but ask yourself a question – what have you accomplished in life? Cardinale is a rich wealthy man while you sit on internet posting idiotic crap. LOL
I hope Cardinale stays for a long time and continues to improve the club. He is investing millions of dollars into a new stadium which will bring huge revenue to the club – how much have any of you criers invested into Milan?
Except yourself here,everyone is working and they were in better situation compared to 10years before and mostly everyone have a future plans how to save, spend money in different areas.
Football is not different to life, each clubs works like a combined family living together.
Atleast Cardinale have business knowledge but iam not sure you have atleast Football knowledge, as i am sure you are from understanding business.
Latest news coming have PIF buying into the club as a minority stake holder, to help with financing the stadium project. Eventually (potentially) acquiring majority stake…
I don’t know if I quite trust Gerry relinquishing majority stake. i think this would only potentially happen after the stadium is built.