OT: Ricketts buying italian soccer club AC Milan?

[don't panac]

sorry for the intrusion,
Italian media are insistently reporting that the Ricketts family is about to bid for italian soccer team AC Milan.
can anyone confirm?
if so, what can AC Milan fans expect in terms of investments, rebuilding strategy, etc.?
thanks in advance

[Kizz Fastfists]

What we have experienced as Cubs fan was a complete rebuilding of the team organization and infrastructure. He brought in top of the line front office people and gave them whatever they needed. It included adding an IT department and investment in software development for statistical analysis, getting scouts set up with the ability to store all scouting data in one place and other investments in software and hardware to catch an organization that was stuck in 1980 to put them on par of teams that had remained on the forefront of technology. They have made a lot of stadium improvements.

As for how the team itself will be built I am unfamiliar with how to build a European soccer club so I can't really speak intelligently on it. I would expect them to be hands off and let their front office make the decisions. If the team is in need of rebuilding then expect trades for young players and a building period. They haven't been afraid to spend money on the Cubs so I would expect it to be the same there. As long as they are turning a profit expect them to reinvest the bulk of it into the club. I would not expect them to be willing to operate with plans of a long-term loss. Taking a short-term loss if they see a long-term gain, i.e. stadium improvements that should boost seating and thus revenue are the type of losses they would take.

It took a few years before they started making drastic changes due to the contracts that previous ownership had given out and they had to wait for those to become palatable for buyouts. They also were waiting for the right person to become available to bring in to run the baseball operations. So it might take a few years to see them really put their stamp on the club. So if it looks like they are maintaining the status quo and the team isn't improving it could be more of them waiting to build up the club's bank account in preparation of making multiple significant moves at once when the timing lines up.

[wiggins6592]

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