In 1990 Eller was also CEO of the convenience store chain Circle K for a time and, under his leadership, the Circle K chain grew from about 1,000 to 5,000 stores across the county, a direction the market could not sustain. Eller resigned from Circle K in 1990, a week before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. He was personally $100 million in debt at the time but refused to file for personal bankruptcy protection, opting instead to contact his creditors and investors and pull enough money together to launch a comeback. Two years after exiting Circle K, he launched Eller Media, which became the largest outdoor billboard business in the nation. Five years later, he reportedly sold it for more than $1 billion. Over the years Eller has made his indelible mark on Arizona, helping to bring the Phoenix Suns to Phoenix, and the Arizona Cardinals and the Fiesta Bowl game to Tempe, Arizona. He was also part owner of the Phoenix Suns when the team started out in 1968 and was responsible for hiring Jerry Colangelo away from the Chicago Bulls to run the new team.
Colangelo would go on to become arguably the biggest sports mogul in Arizona history, not only leading the Suns, but also bringing baseball to the Valley with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998 and having his hands in many other sports-related efforts. Eller and his wife have been active in Arizona communities, and support a variety of nonprofit organizations. Eller accepted Gov. Jan Brewer's request to head the state's Centennial Commission, which was tasked with raising millions of dollars to pay for the various activities surrounding Arizona's 100 years of statehood. In 2012, Eller was reportedly in the hospital in critical condition at a California hospital, where he was in a medically induced coma, after falling from his bicycle and was not deemed stable enough to return to his Phoenix home for several months. The couple has homes in Phoenix and the San Diego area.
