Cairo's project: "A Toro stadium? We're interested, we need the right steps"

Dogliani has returned to being a small global village, nestled in the heart of the Langhe. Yesterday the curtain went up on the TV Festival, among well-known faces from the small screen and movie stars, for example Ornella Muti arrived in Piazza Umberto. There is talk of publishing, entertainment, the future of television and even football: Urbano Cairo, president of RCS Mediagroup, La7 and Torino, opens the first day. "I have put twenty years of my life into Toro, I love Toro", Cairo tells journalists, but also to the many fans who ask him for selfies, autographs, videos and fresh news. The occasion is interesting to reflect on the future of the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, on which the Turin municipal administration announced midweek that the mortgages will not be renewed. Until now they had curbed its future and slowed down the process of selling it to a private individual. "I saw the mayor of Turin (Stefano Lo Russo, ed.) at my birthday party, but we didn't talk," says Urbano Cairo. "The stadium is something that interests us, but I don't want to put my hands up or say anything more: let's try to take all the right steps, in the meantime let's wait and see what their assessment will be. There is an administration that will certainly do things in a very balanced way." And he closes the topic: "For a football team, having a stadium is important, it's an added value."

The future of Toro is the talk of the town. "Coming to Dogliani I thought that, in entrepreneurial families, there are usually three generations - continues Cairo -: the first does important things, the second more or less maintains, the third squanders. For Torino, the first generation is the one that goes from the first scudetti to the Grande Torino. The second is that of the 60s-70s, the third is that of the bankruptcy of Toro in 2005. Unfortunately, I took Toro from a bankruptcy, at a time when there was nothing, but I started again and, therefore, I am a new first generation and I am certainly better than the third generation". On September 2nd he will celebrate twenty years of presidency. "I haven't had anyone ask me about Torino yet," Cairo says. "If I were to sell it, I would put it in the hands of people who are suitable, who have the ability and financial resources. I have no contact with anyone who has shown me serious intentions. But, as I have always said, if someone with passion and availability arrives, I am always ready. If I were to sell it, I would give it in better conditions than how I took it from the bankruptcy of 2005: at the time there weren't even any balls, now there is a team with 15 national teams. We have been in Serie A for 13 consecutive years, eight times we have been on the left side of the table. And we have very different structures compared to 2005: today we have Filadelfia which, if it was born, is also because we have worked hard, obviously together with others. The Robaldo sports center for youth teams is almost ready, we will inaugurate it soon and we also have a youth system that produces good quality players."

"I give Giorgia Meloni a positive vote", from the stage of the Festival Cairo promotes the government's work: "She has good international relations and has been able to give stability to the country. An innovative and revolutionary thing would be to have not one but a hundred subjects in the spending review who intervene on waste. Me in politics? I can't even think about it having a company with 4500 employees and 5000 collaborators. It's impossible, I would have to sell everything". Interviewed by the journalist Mario Calabresi, he reflects on the moment of publishing. "Italian publishing is in a phase of great transformation - he says -: we are moving from an analog phase to an increasingly digital one that today is influenced by artificial intelligence, so it is really important to know how to run very quickly". On the prospects of the printed press he says: "Since I arrived at RCS we have maintained a decent level, the world of digital copies has developed a lot: when I arrived we had 60,000 digital subscribers, today we are at 700,000 for the Corriere della Sera and 250,000 for the Gazzetta dello Sport. This world is undergoing a rapid transformation, we are trying to anticipate it to be ready to follow it and possibly lead it". Before saying goodbye, he recalls that "what I miss is a radio, an old passion of mine. I have come close many times, but now I see it as difficult". And he concludes: "What is my dream? Now I have a nice one, but if I say it it won't come true".