{"id":591114,"date":"2026-06-04T15:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/591114\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:48:14","slug":"gotham-fc-tap-former-florida-panthers-exec-zarthar-as-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/591114\/","title":{"rendered":"Gotham FC tap former Florida Panthers exec Zarthar as president"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">Gotham FC have hired former Florida Panthers executive Mark Zarthar as team president, installing a new business leader as the NWSL club looks to parlay championship success into commercial growth in the country\u2019s largest media market. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">Zarthar, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/06\/16\/forty-under-40-mark-zarthar-florida-panthers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2025 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree<\/a>, will oversee the club\u2019s business operations, including revenue generation, marketing, operations, finance and HR functions. His arrival coincides with the departure of Ryan Dillon, who had served as chief business officer since owner Carolyn Tisch Blodgett took control of the club in 2023. Dillon is returning to Tisch\u2019s investment firm, Next 3, as chief growth officer. Sportico first reported Gotham FC\u2019s hiring of Zarthar. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">The move is the latest step in a broader reshaping of Gotham FC\u2019s leadership structure. Former Angel City FC Head of Strategy and Chief of Staff Kari Fleischauer, who joined Gotham as COO, and former 49ers CMO Alex Chang, who joined as CRO, will now report to Zarthar. The club will also announce the promotion of GM Yael Averbuch West to president of soccer operations. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">Zarthar will be tasked with elevating Gotham FC into one of the NWSL\u2019s top-performing businesses to match an impressive run of on-field success that has included two championships in the past three seasons. Attendance at Sports Illustrated Stadium, where the team is a tenant, grew by 41% between 2023 and 2025, but its average of 8,892 last season still ranked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/11\/04\/nwsl-attendance-down-5-from-last-years-record-mark\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/11\/04\/nwsl-attendance-down-5-from-last-years-record-mark\/\">below the league average of 10,669<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">\u201cWe have a tremendously strong fan base today \u2013 they\u2019re very passionate and they\u2019re a significant part of our DNA,\u201d Zarthar said. \u201cMy job is to continue to grow that fan base at scale and, as a result, grow our brand and grow our top line business.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">Zarthar left the Panthers in December 2025, joining several top business leaders to depart following their second consecutive Stanley Cup victory in 2024-25. He spent three years with the NHL franchise, during which the team capitalized on a remarkable run of on-ice success to achieve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/06\/23\/sunshine-boys-florida-based-teams-have-dominated-the-nhl-and-the-league-is-seeking-to-capitalize-on-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">significant business growth<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">He served as the Panthers\u2019 chief strategy officer for more than two years before becoming CRO last July. He led the team\u2019s local broadcast transition from its longtime regional sports network to an over-the-air deal with Scripps Sports. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">Before joining the Panthers, Zarthar served as Senior VP\/Marketing for the Flyers and president of the Astros\u2019 Single-A affiliate, the Fayetteville Woodpeckers. He also spent four years in marketing at Anheuser-Busch, overseeing the Natural Light brand. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">Gotham FC has been exploring a possible move to Etihad Park, the new soccer-specific stadium being built by NYCFC in Queens that is set to open in 2027. Sportico recently reported the team is in \u201cadvanced talks,\u201d and the club has acknowledged it will continue to \u201cregularly evaluate options to best support our players, supporters and organization.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">A move to Etihad Park, which would likely occur in 2028 at the earliest, could dramatically reorient Gotham FC\u2019s fan base, making the team more visible and accessible to fans in Queens and Brooklyn at the expense of those in New Jersey. Zarthar declined to comment on the potential move but said the team intends to engage the entire region. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">\u201cI would argue that both New Jersey and New York City are both parts of our long-term growth plan,\u201d Zarthar said. \u201cWe benefit from being located in the largest media market in the country. We have an opportunity to scale tremendously as a result of being in the greater New York area, but the New York area is also incredibly competitive. So, we need to differentiate ourselves and make noise within the marketplace to attract new fans and attract additional partners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gotham FC have hired former Florida Panthers executive Mark Zarthar as team president, installing a new business leader&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,17696,5,4,4194,63,4514,1374],"class_list":["post-591114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida-panthers","tag-florida","tag-florida-panthers","tag-floridapanthers","tag-gotham-fc","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-nwsl","tag-panthers","tag-soccer","tag-womens-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116692628574013382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}