Gazzetta: Explaining in great detail Cardinale's vision for AC Milan on 4 levels

La Gazzetta dello Sport in today's edition spoke about Gerry Cardinale's words on Wednesday about his activism: "You can't buy a club and stay put". But what will he do with Milan now? The answer is provided by the Italian newspaper.

Red Sox, Yankees and LeBron James: the network of relationships expands...

"We will make sure to take advantage of our global sports and media network," Cardinale said back in August. The first two months show: he has activated his network of relationships to increase the visibility of the Milan brand in the world. Here Cardinale is operative, not in the daily management of Milan, which remains identical to the Elliott era, with all the key men of the Singer management still at the center of the processes. One of the important partnerships is the one with the New York Yankees who are, for Forbes, the second most valuable franchise in American sport (data 2021, first the Dallas Cowboys). Milan merchandising is already on sale at Yankee Stadium and the opposite will soon happen in Milan. Much has also been written about the investment in Milan by Main Street Advisors, a fund that has LeBron James among its investors: a great hit in terms of image

without a concrete link with LBJ. 36 hours ago Cardinale reiterated his desire to expand the network of clubs linked to RedBird. The fund now owns Milan and Toulouse, has invested in Fenway Sports Group (owner of Liverpool, Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Penguins), has a stake in the Rajasthan Royals of cricket. It is possible that in the coming months at least one new club will be added, but not in Italy.

Operation: studies, data and media: the goal is to "shake" the club

Cardinal wants to use caution - "you can't go with guns a-blazing" but he has some ideas in mind. The stadium is the main one. There is big business there and Cardinale has already taken care of stadiums. "We want to ensure that Milan can count on infrastructures and structures that are up to par," he wrote in the summer. The goal is to have a new stadium owned in 2027, a big key to flying revenues. Second point, the data. RedBird is very proud of Zelus, a company that processes data for high-level sport with artificial intelligence. Transfer market? Yes, but also much more: data are now central to tactics, physical preparation, accident prevention and many other sectors. Milan, which obviously is already in contact with big data, will face new statistical analyzes in a delicate process, not without risks for the comparison between different ways of seeing football and the market. As for the media, Milan now has a partnership with the YES network which will broadcast hours of Rossoneri content in the United States. The media company theme is certainly on the agenda, as is Cardinale's attention to TV rights: the gap between the value of the rights of Serie A and Premier League (or even La Liga) is significant.

Commercial development:

AC Milan has over 500 million fans around the world and the club looks to them. The RedBird project has one of its cornerstones in the development of the commercial area, as said by Cardinale at "Leaders Week London": "I see a tremendous hidden value. Milan is one of the most popular clubs in Southeast Asia and has a great fan base in the United States. Our interest was in Milan as a brand. " Cardinale is concentrated here, more than elsewhere: increasing the value of the brand, closing advertising deals, enhancing revenues. Attention, it is not a purely budgetary speech: sustainability is one of the cornerstones of RedBird management and everything, even the strengthening of the team, passes from here. More turnover, more millions for the transfer market and projects. The most awaited moment is probably the renewal of the agreement with Fly Emirates, widely launched: the jersey sponsor will increase its contribution, which will increase from 14 million plus bonuses to around 30 million per season. Other agreements are topical. Show biz: Milan brought the Scudetto cup to London and New York, where hundreds of AC Milan fans saw Milan-Juve at 40/40, the iconic venue of Jay Z. Fashion: the announcement of the partnership with Off White, a cult brand for young people. Cinema: a collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery was born, symbolized by the “Forza Milan” shouted by the star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on the big screen of San Siro during Milan-Juve. The thin line of the Rossoneri can be recognized: Milan aims at the general public, especially young people, and in this sense it is good to pay attention to such markets.

Excellence:

The field is the most important point for Gerry Cardinale. "Milan have won a Scudetto and the expectations are to do it again", he said. At the closing, moreover, he had said he wanted to keep competitiveness at the highest level. From his words you can perceive a certain sense of inferiority compared to the European top, probably born from the two challenges with Chelsea. The road will therefore be that of the Elliott era: raising the bar, investing in young talent to whom you can trust and avoiding to grant heavy contracts. Can Rafa Leao be the exception? Yes, even if his renewal remains complex, very complex. It will be much easier to renew Pioli, due to expire at the end of the season, while the situations Bennacer and Kalulu deserve attention, two expected renewals that have not yet materialized. For Kalulu, the news of these days is the change of agent: Pierre had been looking around for some time and now seems to have chosen Stellar, a large group led by Jonathan Barnett. The will to continue together is there, now it is a question of sitting down at a table with the new agents to understand at what figure we can close. Calmly, most likely after the World Cup, Milan will instead face the Giroud issue. Olivier has a contract expiring at the end of the current season.