Tom Benson, a self-made billionaire who owned the N.F.L.’s Saints and the N.B.A.’s Pelicans in a four-decade reign over an often turbulent pro sports scene in his native New Orleans, died on Thursday in Jefferson, La. He was 90.
The Saints announced his death, at Ochsner Medical Center, on their website. He had been hospitalized since Feb. 16 with the flu.
Mr. Benson, who owned a string of auto dealerships in New Orleans and San Antonio and a number of Southern banks before buying the Saints in 1985, was alternately revered and reviled by local sports fans.