Sports property sales is still seen as a boys club, but after six years at the NFL, Renie Anderson has grown comfortable with that characterization. “Most of my competition at other leagues is still going to be men, and I’m still going to run circles around them,” Anderson said with a laugh. “It has gotten to be a more level playing field, but each deal has its own dynamics. P&G [signed in 2009] took three years start to finish. It’s about patience and persistence.”
Anderson grew up on a farm in Kentucky and did not plan on a career in sports, but eight years with the Arena Football League, starting as assistant to then-Commissioner David Baker, set her on a path on which she’s still running, helping to score deals with the likes of Bridgestone, Marriott, Papa John’s and USAA. And with the NFL’s senior vice president of sponsorship and media sales, Keith Turner, having departed for Univision this summer, business development at the country’s biggest sports property is currently being run by a woman — so maybe it no longer is a boys club?
— Terry Lefton
WHAT OTHERS
ARE SAYING
“I have done two sizable NFL sponsorship deals with Renie [for USAA and Marriott], and she does a great job of balancing the league’s interests with those of the client buying NFL rights. That is not an easy balancing act, but she does it skillfully.”
- David Abrutyn, managing director, senior vice president and head of IMG Global Consulting
NFL
