One would think that the owners of the New York Giants, one of the NFL’s flagship franchises for nearly a century, would be among the wealthiest in the cadre of billionaires who make up the NFL’s ownership fraternity.
Think again. The Giants’ owners are among the least wealthiest in the NFL.
In a new listing of NFL ownership net worth from Celebrity Net Worth, the Giants owners are near the bottom of the list. Steve Tisch is reportedly worth $1.2 billion while John Mara is estimated to be worth less than half of that at $500 million.
The wealthiest owner in the NFL is the newest — David Tepper of the Carolina Panthers — whose estimated net worth is $12.6 billion. He is followed by Shad Kahn, Jacksonville Jaguars ($9 billion); Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys ($8.5 billion); Stephen Ross, Miami Dolphins ($7.7 billion); Stan Kroenke, Los Angeles Rams ($7.7 billion) and Robert Kraft, New England Patriots ($6.2 billion).
The least wealthiest are Detroit’s Martha Firestone Ford ($800 million) and Mark Davis of the Las Vegas Raiders ($250 million).
Tisch and Mara both inherited their stake of the Giants from their fathers. Mara’s grandfather, Tim, founded the Giants in 1925 paying a reported $500 for the club in the fledgling National Football League.
When Tim died in 1959, he left the team to his sons, Wellington and Jack, who ran the team together until Jack’s death in 1965. Jack’s half of the team was taken over by his son, Tim, who had his own ideas of how the club should be run and a feud between the two sent the Giants into a decade-and-a-half tailspin until NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle intervened and got both owners to agree to hire George Young to run the football operations.
Bob Tisch, Steve’s father, bought 50 percent of the team in 1991 (estimated at $80 million) from Tim, who, even though the Giants had won two Super Bowls, was still not on good terms with his uncle, Wellington. Tim passed away in 1995, but not before Frank Gifford brought the two men together for a reconciliation.
Wellington Mara passed away on October 25, 2005. Bob Tisch died three weeks later. John Mara was named CEO and Steve Tisch the Chairman after their deaths. The Giants were recently valued at $3.9 billion by Forbes Magazine.
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