Cardinale explains why it is time for Milan to ‘do what the Yankees did’

AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale has once again stressed the importance of building a new stadium and following the lead of the New York Yankees in terms of varying revenue streams.

Despite the fact that Gerry Cardinale has repeatedly and publicly declared that ‘plan A’ is to build a new home for Milan in the San Donato area of the city, there continues to be talk about the San Siro renovation plan.

However, even Zlatan Ibrahimovic spoke alongside Cardinale during an interview for the Financial Times last night and even he admitted that the time has come to move away from San Siro, as difficult as it might be from a sentimental point of view.

Cardinale did an interview with Fortune in which he explained his plans for Milan in terms of the new stadium project and the importance of exploiting more revenue streams.

“Sports now is no longer a hobby for rich guys. Sports is a multibillion-dollar live event entertainment business, and you have to bring relationships and multidisciplinary skill sets across a range of activities to be able to get these things done,” he said.

“It’s time for Italy, and for Milan, to do what the Yankees did back in 2008. Old Yankee Stadium had been around forever. Babe Ruth was there, Joe DiMaggio was there, Mickey Mantle was there, Roger Maris was there. It was iconic. But they realised that it’s time now for a new version of that.”

Cardinale also spoke about Billy Beane, the former baseball executive credited with inventing the data-driven approach that was famously profiled by the journalist Michael Lewis for Moneyball.

“It’s not a question of outspending the other guy. It’s a question of spending an incremental dollar of capital better than anyone else,” he added.

“In the old days you could just throw a party and people would show up. Today, there’s a tremendous amount of competition for an individual’s discretionary time. So if you’re going to charge premium pricing in a live event, you’re going to have to deliver a value proposition to that customer, in this case, the fan.

“One big macro thing in sports, in general, is you’ve had this massive escalation in these valuations in sports and none of the people and none of the infrastructure really has kept pace. I mean, these are all now mini Disney’s—live event entertainment companies.”

Cardinale himself remains positive about the chances of building a new stadium, even though he has “heard from others’ past experiences that it’s very tricky” but adding “I like our chances.”

On buying the SportsLifeCity vehicle to kick start the San Donate project, he said: “I wanted to know I had a viable, zonable option for the stadium. If the stadium doesn’t happen, we stay at San Siro.”

There has been an influx of American investment in European football, and it is something that Cardinale does not see as a surprise.

“Those concepts are more familiar to American investors and I think that’s what attracted them to Serie A. They realise what the legacy is and the history here in some of these under-managed brands. They realised the potential to have a great investment on your hands, simply by professionalizing the ownership.

I hope Dan Friedkin is able to get a stadium done. I’ll certainly do everything I can to support him because Italy needs more live event entertainment infrastructure. If I had my druthers, I would help every single other owner in Serie A build a stadium, because it’s good for the ecosystem.”