Tom Benson, a longtime car dealer who bought the New Orleans Saints football team and New Orleans Pelicans basketball team, died Thursday, March 15. He was 90.
Benson built his net worth of about $1.7 billion through automobile dealerships, banking concerns and real estate. At its peak, his automotive empire encompassed dealerships in Texas, Louisiana and South Carolina, according to a biography on the websites of some of his dealerships. He sold BMW, Chevrolet, Honda, Isuzu, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mercury and Mitsubishi vehicles.
The high point of his NFL tenure came in February 2010, when the Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl. The victory, which came nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, was a milestone in the city's recovery.
As a Mercedes-Benz dealer, Benson helped drive the talks that led Mercedes-Benz USA in 2011 to buy naming rights to the Saints' home, the Superdome in New Orleans.
Benson served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and later joined the accounting division of Cathey Chevrolet in New Orleans at age 19. After eight years, he was asked to take over an ailing dealership in San Antonio, according to a 1987 Los Angeles Times profile. He became the owner of that dealership, which he called Tom Benson Chevrolet. Others followed.
"At one time we had 30 franchises," Tom Roddy, president of Benson Motor Corp., of San Antonio, told Automotive News in 1997, as Benson was selling off the dealerships to focus on his NFL team.
In late 2001, Benson became embroiled in the debate over whether dates for the 2002 Super Bowl and the 2002 National Automobile Dealers Association convention in New Orleans should be switched. The debate arose because a week of regular-season games was postponed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Then-NADA Chairman Bob Maguire said Benson called him to say it was crucial to keep the Super Bowl in New Orleans because of negotiations with the city over a bond issue to make improvements at the Superdome, where the Super Bowl was to be played.
NADA eventually agreed to swap dates for $7.5 million and other considerations from the NFL.
Bloomberg contributed to this report.
