Ever since their rough patches, AC Milan and Inter have bounced back to their old selves. What makes the Nerazzurri's impending 20th Serie A title all the more remarkable is that they are quite close to achieving it. On par with Juventus, they will join an exclusive group of Italian clubs to get the second […]
Ever since their rough patches, AC Milan and Inter have bounced back to their old selves. What makes the Nerazzurri’s impending 20th Serie A title all the more remarkable is that they are quite close to achieving it.
On par with Juventus, they will join an exclusive group of Italian clubs to get the second star. Meanwhile, finally settling into their stride, AC Milan won Serie A in 2021-22, capping off an 11-year drought.
The issue of each team’s home stadium, however, has to be resolved. In fact, the illustrious San Siro may not be their home venue for much longer. The two teams want to leave it for a variety of reasons, the most significant of which is financial.
It’s no secret that in Italy, teams often have to pay rent to the city that owns the stadium. For now, the legendary location will continue to host both teams, according to Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala. In fact, the 65-year-old has been doing all in his power to keep both teams for the future as well.
How do AC Milan plan to follow Yankees’ footsteps?
However, both teams are now focusing on brand new venues after years of failed plans to renovate the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. In fact, a new stadium is urgently needed, according to the Rossoneri’s American owner Gerry Cardinale. Furthermore, he detailed his plans to emulate the New York Yankees’ multi-pronged income strategy.
“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 told Fortune Magazine.
“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 realized that it’s time now for a new version of that.”
Though he has “heard from others’ past experiences that it’s very tricky” to construct a new stadium, Cardinale maintains an optimistic outlook on the project. He added: “I like our chances… I wanted to know I had a viable, zonable option for the stadium. If the stadium doesn’t happen, we stay at San Siro.”
The Milan clubs have a number of potential challenges
Constructing new facilities not easy in Italy
In fact, foreign owners of clubs have it bad in the Italian Serie A. The Red and Blacks aren’t the only ones who misjudged how many hurdles they’d have to pass through to have new infrastructure developed.
Some government officials are attempting to use the same regulations meant to save historic sites to block renovations to San Siro. However, Cardinale maintains that it’s not drastically different from America.
“Those concepts are more familiar to American investors and I think that’s what attracted them to Serie A. They realize what the legacy is and the history here in some of these under-managed brands. They realized the potential to have a great investment on your hands, simply by professionalizing the ownership.”
