HEADLINES

Dea Spanos Berberian

Tom Gores To Purchase Minority Share Of Chargers

October 6th, 2024 at 4:37pm CST by Adam La Rose

Dean Spanos is set to remain the Chargers’ controlling owner, but his siblings will soon have their respective shares in the team bought out. A deal is in place for Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores to buy a 27% stake in the franchise, as detailed by ESPN’s Kris Rhim and Michael Rothenstein.

That share encompasses the 24% stake owned by Dea Spanos Berberian as well as the 1% shares which cover part of Dean’s share as well as the other Spanos siblings, Michael and Alexis Spanos Ruhl. The transaction – which is expected to be on the agenda during the October league meeting – still needs to be approved by the league’s owners. Provided it does, it will bring to an end legal issues which have taken place over the past several years related to the Bolts’ ownership situation.

Spanos Berberian filed multiple lawsuits dating back to 2021 in an attempt to force Dean to sell the franchise. Those suits (which cited increasing family debt as a reason to sell) drew angst among the rest of the family, although Dean had pledged in a letter two years earlier to retain an investment bank which would assist in a sale following the 2024 campaign. That will not be taking place, but a notable cash infusion is set to be received. Spanos Berberian’s suits, per the report, will be dropped as a condition of this agreement.

No details on the valuation of the Chargers is known at this point as it pertains to this agreement, but even a non-controlling share figures to check in at a massive figure given how NFL franchises have exploded in value recently. The most recent example of that trend is the sale of the Commanders, which led to Josh Harris spending $6.05 billion to purchase the team last summer.

Notably, the deal is set to be finalized not long after the NFL’s recent decision to allow private equity firms to buy minority stakes in franchises. That move brought the league in line with other North American pro sports operations, and Gores bought out Platinum Equity’s share in the Pistons in 2015 when he took over full control of that organization. Platinum Equity will not be involved in this transaction, however, per the ESPN report; Gores will individually become a minority owner.

Alex Spanos bought the then-San Diego Chargers in in 1984, and Dean took over one decade later. The latter’s tenure has, of course, primarily been defined by the franchise’s move to Los Angeles in addition to the legal battle involving his siblings. Those will be put to rest once the sale is ratified, though, and Spanos will be positioned to remain the controlling owner for the foreseeable future.

Chargers Owner Dean Spanos’ Sister Attempting To Force Sale

April 1st, 2021 at 3:51pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

There’s been plenty of NFL ownership drama over the past year, and the Broncos are now no longer the only AFC West team with a power struggle going on. The Chargers have entered the fray, as Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times writes.

A sister of Chargers owner Dean Spanos, Dea Spanos Berberian, has filed a petition in Los Angeles County Court asking a judge to force a sale of the team. Fenno writes that Berberian argues “that mounting debt has imperiled the family’s finances and the only solution is to put the NFL franchise on the market.”

Berberian is a trustee of the family trust alongside Spanos, and she “alleges the trust’s debts and expenses exceed” $353MM. “Every day that passes increases the risks that the charitable beneficiaries and the Spanos family legacy will suffer irreparable financial and reputational damage,” if the team isn’t sold, the petition reads.

According to the court filing this has been going on behind the scenes for quite some time, as Spanos told his siblings in a 2019 letter that he would retain an investment bank at the end of the 2024 season to help sell the team. Berberian is attempting to force a move sooner than that, but either way it sounds like the Spanos family won’t be owning the franchise long-term.

That being said, Spanos and two of his other siblings released a defiant statement in response to this filing, which you can read in full here, denouncing Berberian’s effort.

“For the three of us the Chargers is one of our family’s most important legacies, just as it was for our parents. Unfortunately, our sister Dea seems to have a different and misguided personal agenda. If Dea no longer wishes to be part of this family legacy, the three of us stand ready to purchase her share of the franchise, as our agreements give us the right to do. In the meanwhile, the operations of the Chargers will be entirely unaffected by this matter, which relates only to the 36 percent share of the team that was owned by our parents,” it reads in part.

Spanos is no stranger to controversy, as he became a very polarizing figure among Chargers fans in San Diego after moving the team to Los Angeles a few years ago. This will take months if not years to fully play out, but we’ll keep you posted.