Disney owns sports juggernaut ESPN, which has a $1.9-billion annual contract with the NFL for “Monday Night Football.” The agreement with Carson Holdings was structured so that Iger could recuse himself from issues dealing with the stadium project that would pose a conflict with his day job.
The Carson Holdings team recruited Iger to be on their team, in part, to send a signal to the NFL that its stadium project would be of high quality and commercially viable. Who better to entrust the project to the executive who has decades of experience in building fan-pleasing theme parks?
“He has great knowledge of the Southern California market, and a command of the intersection of the sports, media and entertainment worlds,” Carter said. “He has relationships in the sports business world, and internationally, which ultimately could help the NFL.”
Iger has plenty of experience and savvy that could help the NFL fortify its position as the nation’s most popular sport as well as open doors internationally. There has long been speculation that the NFL would like to expand teams to Europe and Latin America, and it has scheduled three NFL games for London this season.
The NFL has long wanted to expand beyond the U.S. as the market here is nearly saturated and soccer is gaining traction with America’s youth.
Iger has roots in the sports business. Before he started climbing the corporate ladder at the ABC television network, and then at its parent, Disney, Iger was part of Roone Arledge’s team at ABC Sports during the headiest days of “NFL Monday Night Football” and “Wide World of Sports.”
“He’s a very talented individual,” said Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist. “He has much more of an ability to be influential now in trying to lift the visibility and desirability of Carson versus Inglewood as an outsider who happens to run one of the most important media networks in the country and one that’s involved in the NFL. So I think he will be a powerful player in terms of what happens in the next several months.”