Speaking at Bloomberg Screentime 2026, the Milan owner and RedBird founder was asked which team he would buy if he could make the decision again.
“I will be honest. Maybe it is obvious, but I would say Milan,” Cardinale said. He described Milan as one of Europe’s most important cities, with a major role in fashion, and compared the club to the New York Yankees of Italian football.
Cardinale also explained the investment philosophy behind his European interests, saying he looks for situations where something can be repaired and then accelerated back towards its previous level.
“The strategy is to go where there is something to ‘fix’ and do it, accelerating the process to bring them back to where they were before,” he said.
He believes European football remains a major investment opportunity, while arguing that American sports properties are currently overpriced. Cardinale also identified a difference in the way sport and entertainment are viewed on the two continents.
“The challenge in Europe is that they don’t particularly like entertainment when it comes to sport. They don’t accept compromises,” he said. “What I am trying to explain in Europe is that you need entertainment to finance sport.”
That philosophy is also central to his plans for Milan’s infrastructure. Cardinale said San Siro has been acquired and that a new stadium with a capacity of 80,000 will be built.
“We bought San Siro, the iconic stadium in Milan, and we will build another stadium with 80,000 spectators,” he said.
The project could extend beyond football, with Cardinale also hoping to bring an NBA team to Milan and build an arena for it.
“We hope to bring an NBA team to Milan and build an NBA arena,” he said. “We will create a Milan sports and entertainment platform, which should accelerate the growth of Italian football to reach levels similar to the Premier League.”
Cardinale’s comments underline the scale of the project he envisages around Milan, combining the Milan football club, new stadium infrastructure and the possibility of a future NBA presence into a broader sports and entertainment proposition.