AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale pledges to build new stadium in city

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AC Milan’s private equity owner Gerry Cardinale has pledged to build a new 70,000-seater “American-like” stadium for the Italian football club, pouring cold water over efforts by the city’s mayor to salvage its historic San Siro stadium.

Cardinale, managing partner of RedBird Capital Partners, told the FT Business of Football Summit in London on Thursday that the club was ready to move forward with the construction of its new stadium on the outskirts of the Italian city.

“We’ve made more progress in 18 months than I think has ever been made in terms of a new stadium in Italy . . . we can start to do things differently [in football],” Cardinale said. “European football’s ecosystem needs to change.”

Cardinale, speaking alongside AC Milan legend Zlatan Ibrahimović, added: “We want to bring change with a great American-like stadium that we will own. We owe it to the fans.”

Ibrahimović joked: “San Siro will miss me more than I will miss San Siro.”

The future of San Siro, one of European football’s most famous sporting arenas, has been in doubt since US hedge fund Elliott Management took over AC Milan in 2018 and initiated plans either to refurbish the stadium, which the club shares with its arch rival Inter Milan, or build a new one.

Building new stadiums for Italy’s top teams has proved difficult because of the country’s stubborn bureaucracy.

“There’s a big gap between Serie A and other leagues. It’s all about the budget, the economics,” Ibrahimović said. “Italy needs something more, they need something new.”

The Swedish superstar added Cardinale’s plan for the club and its stadium would “give the fans what they deserve, because it comes up to another level and you run it in a different way, and then you can attract better players, better economies, and that becomes a domino effect”.

RedBird, which acquired Milan in a €1.2bn deal in 2022, recently bought land on the southern outskirts of the city. The new football stadium would be the first built in Italy since Juventus moved into a new stadium in Turin in 2011.

Italian club owners have complained about onerous red tape that has stalled construction of new stadiums suitable for televising and streaming a world-class broadcast product. The slow development of new infrastructure has contributed to the decline of Serie A, once considered Europe’s premier football league.

The renovation of Milan’s 98-year-old San Siro has been a sticking point between the two big local clubs — which operate the facility on a concession agreement with the city — and mayor Giuseppe Sala. Italian authorities have imposed conditions on any potential renovation of the facility, which the clubs say would limit capacity and undermine profits.

Sala had hoped to convince the clubs to agree a new 100-year lease following San Siro’s full renovation.

Rome-based WeBuild on Wednesday said its renovation of San Siro would take place during the Italian league’s summer break, allowing the clubs to continue playing through the season. The renovation would last at least two years.

But Cardinale and Ibrahimović insisted AC Milan wanted to own its own stadium.

Milan finished 13th in Deloitte’s most recent annual rankings of football clubs by revenue. The Italian side made total revenues of €385mn in the 2022-23 season up from €257mn the prior year. But its match day revenue was just €79mn last year, well below that of other clubs.

Building a new stadium is one way a club can take action to increase revenue, given television deals are typically negotiated by leagues not clubs. Several other clubs are also moving to upgrade their infrastructure.

Total match day revenues across the top 20 revenue-generating clubs in the world amounted to €1.9bn in 2022-23, according to Deloitte. Milan lagged behind the likes of Spanish sides Real Madrid and Barcelona, French champions Paris Saint-Germain, and German champions Bayern Munich both in overall revenues and match day income.