CCO Oettle explains how the ‘atmosphere has changed’ at Milan under RedBird | OneFootball

Since RedBird became the owners of AC Milan, there have been several changes on and off the pitch, and the Chief Commercial Officer of the club has spoken about things.

With results on the pitch stagnating in recent years, Milan have often been a difficult team to analyse. The Rossoneri, on paper, have a very strong project and it is still in its infancy, so we cannot be too harsh in our judgements – to a degree of course.

Success on the pitch aids success of it, and although the club has been growing significantly from a commercial perspective, there is a lack of progress being made on the pitch which has frustrated fans, with many believing that accounts are being prioritised over things like trophies.

Yesterday, Gerry Cardinale revealed as much, explaining that things operate with expectations ‘lower’ than the ambitions of the fans. Today, as part of the Harvard Business School document, the words of Maikel Oettle have been published by Milan News, and he delved into how the club has changed.

American investment in football…

“The mentality of traditional European football is very different from that of American sports. It is often seen that American owners enter European football with the ambition of changing things in a way that makes sense in the world of modern sport, building new stadiums, sorting out the TV rights situation and developing other commercial activities.

“But in many cases bureaucracy and governance structures at league level complicate those efforts. This makes the need for innovators like Gerry even more obvious.”

On revenues…

“We have three main revenue streams that we can control that are not directly linked to sporting results: first, sponsorships and partnerships; second, retail, merchandising and licensing; and third, monetisation of our facilities, mainly the stadium.

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“Under RedBird, the atmosphere has changed rapidly from ‘we have to survive’, which was the mantra under Elliott, to ‘we are a big club and we have to live up to that’.”

On the new seats on the sidelines…

“It’s inspired by what NBA teams do. We are selling seats next to the players’ benches at a premium price. The seats include passes to access the field during pregame warm-ups, something more common in the NFL. When I showed the idea to Zlatan, he said, ‘Give those people access to the field. I want them to be able to high-five the players’.”