Gerry Cardinale's New York-based PE firm. Sport-specialist platform with full control of AC Milan, Toulouse FC, and minority positions in FSG and other sport assets. ~$10bn+ AUM with a long-cycle football operating thesis.
RedBird Capital Partners is a New York-based private equity firm founded in 2014 by Gerry Cardinale (formerly of Goldman Sachs's principal investment area). The platform has approximately $10 billion of assets under management with a meaningful sport-and-media concentration. The football portfolio anchors on AC Milan (acquired August 2022 from Elliott Management for €1.2bn), Toulouse FC (acquired 2020), and an 11 per cent minority position in Fenway Sports Group (2021).
RedBird's investment thesis combines control acquisitions in undervalued European clubs (AC Milan, Toulouse) with strategic minority positions in operating-discipline platforms (FSG). The firm's broader sport-and-media holdings include Skydance Media (recently exited), Yes Network, and several other sport-rights-adjacent positions.
RedBird's football operating model sits between sport-specialist minority (Arctos) and full operating MCO (CFG, FSG). The firm takes control positions but operates them through embedded club leadership rather than centralised group HQ. AC Milan since 2022 has operated under Scaroni and Furlani with RedBird board oversight; Toulouse has run on similar lines.
AC Milan is the central operating focus. The post-2022 sporting performance has been mixed — Serie A title 2021-22 (pre-RedBird), subsequent seasons inconsistent. The stadium question — the San Siro replacement at San Donato versus a refurbishment of the existing site shared with Inter — is the most consequential capex decision the platform faces. Sporting leadership refreshes through 2024-25 attempted to reset performance.
FSG's 11 per cent minority position is the strategic minority anchor of the platform — providing exposure to a different operating model and a credible adjacent-MCO benchmark.
RedBird's stated direction in 2026 centres on AC Milan's operating reset. The stadium decision, the sporting-leadership architecture, and the commercial-cycle planning toward the next Serie A broadcast cycle are the three main strategic threads. Toulouse continues to compound at smaller scale. The FSG minority position is steady-state.
The broader RedBird platform — Skydance exit, sport-and-media adjacencies — provides capital-allocation optionality across the firm's broader thesis. Cardinale's positioning suggests RedBird remains an active acquirer of complex sport situations, with the football portfolio likely to absorb selective additions if pricing works.