Milan owner Gerry Cardinale says RedBird Capital Partners’ new holding company will give the club the financial strength to compete for “the best players in the world” and insists: “I will never sell Milan. Ever.”
RedBird launched the holding company on Friday to bring together its Milan-based investments, including Milan, the emerging NBA Europe project and other ventures.
“The driving force behind transactions like this is to provide Milan with the financial firepower required to compete in the transfer market to secure the best players in the world,” Cardinale told Gazzetta.
He said the club’s finances would be transformed by revenue from a new stadium, the planned arena in San Donato and other projects, including NBA Europe.
“I am doing everything possible to ensure that, when we want a footballer, nobody can tell me: ‘You can’t sign him because you can’t afford him,’” he said.
“Right now, only Premier League clubs are able to invest certain sums and secure top players. If I want to bring Milan back to the top in European competitions, not just in Italy, we have to figure out how to compete with the biggest clubs in the world.”
Cardinale also described the project as a long-term commitment and said he would not accept a lengthy wait for success.
“I will never sell Milan. Ever,” he said. “This is a project to get it back to winning ways. I am not willing to tolerate it taking a long time to achieve that. I want to do it as soon as possible.”
His ambitions include winning Scudetti consistently and returning to the Champions League. He said Milan Sports & Entertainment would provide the foundation for that plan.
“The stadium, obviously, represents a massive legacy that will transform our financial profile, but then there is also the project for the San Donato area and everything else,” he added.
Cardinale said Milan also needed to close the revenue gap with Premier League clubs. Recalling his description of the takeover as “Berlusconi 2.0” four years ago, he said the comparison was intended to reflect Silvio Berlusconi’s impact on both Milan and Serie A, rather than to suggest a personal comparison.
“We want, through our ownership, to take the club into the new era we are living in,” he said. “It has to be done in the same way Berlusconi did it, but in a new way.”
He also said Serie A needed better business planning and new revenue opportunities, rather than selling 30% of its international commercial rights, as proposed by JP Morgan.
Milan will be the first club to build a stadium alongside Inter since 2011, Cardinale said, adding that he had worked on the project since buying the club and that “the right moment has come”.
NBA Europe and wider plans
Cardinale said NBA Europe could begin even if negotiations between the NBA and EuroLeague fail, with the first group of European franchises potentially announced at the end of the year or in early 2027.
Milan already owns land in San Donato and has planning permission for a 20,000-seat arena. Cardinale also said the group was exploring opportunities in tennis, including staging a tournament in Milan, and developing a hospitality and venue-management company.
The business would follow the model of Legends Hospitality, founded by Cardinale with the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys in 2009. It provides premium seating, suites, merchandise, hospitality, and food and beverage services, and is now a multi-billion-dollar company.
Cardinale said he hoped to introduce the same model in Italy, potentially with another club, managing hospitality services at stadiums beyond San Siro and the new Generali Stadium.
