American Football: Wellington Mara dies at 89

Wellington Mara, the longtime owner of the New York Giants has died, he was involved in the franchise for over 80 years and was instrumental in the revenue sharing plan which lets small market teams compete in todays NFL

One of Mara's greatest contributions came in the early 1960s. He and brother Jack, owners of the biggest team in the biggest market, agreed to share television revenue on a leaguewide basis, dividing the huge amounts of money available in cities like New York with smaller markets from Pittsburgh to Green Bay.

Part of that agreement meant that the Giants ceded the right to sell their own games to television for a leaguewide contract, in those days with CBS. That concept of revenue sharing allowed the NFL to thrive and remains in place today.

sports.yahoo.com...;_ylt=AtKWtvAfB.1Y__6UAHrRTaA5nYcB?slug=ap-obit-mara&prov=ap&type=lgns


[Edited on 10/25/2005 by toejam]

What great vision this man had. And how greatly he helped his league and his sport.

Can you picture Steinbrenner's doing such things?

This sport has lost one of it's greatest. Even I can say that, and I hated his team.