Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores has reached an agreement to buy a 27 percent stake in the Los Angeles Chargers, The Athletic has confirmed.
Sports Business Journal was first to report the proposed transaction.
Chargers owner Dean Spanos and his siblings Michael Spanos, Alexis Spanos Ruhl and Dea Spanos Berberian owned a combined 96 percent stake in the team. Each sibling owned 24 percent — 15 percent individually and nine percent via a trust created by parents Alex and Faye Spanos in 1998. As part of this proposed transaction, Spanos Berberian has agreed to sell her entire 24 percent stake in the team, according to a person familiar with the deal. Dean, Alexis and Michael have also agreed to sell one percent each.
The agreement is subject to approval by NFL owners next month.
The deal, if finalized, would resolve all legal disputes between Spanos Berberian and her siblings.
Spanos Berberian first brought a lawsuit against her siblings in 2021 in an attempt to force a sale of the trust’s 36 percent stake. In that lawsuit, Spanos Berberian alleged a “bleak financial picture.”
A little over a year later, Spanish Berberian backed off her attempt to force a complete sale of the trust. A motion filed in August 2022 noted: “Dea has agreed that … selling something less than the Trust’s full 36 percent of the Chargers in an orderly, professional and cooperative fashion could resolve the Trust’s financial problems.”
If the deal does go through, Dean, Michael and Alexis will still control a majority 69 percent stake in the Chargers.
In 2021, the siblings pledged their intent to maintain full control of the franchise.
“Our parents, Alex and Faye, wanted the Chargers to be part of the Spanos Family for generations to come. For the three of us, the Chargers is one of our family’s most important legacies, just as it was for our parents,” they said in a statement. “The three of us will remain firmly united as we seek to fulfill our parents’ wishes to make every decision in the best interests of the Los Angeles Chargers.”
(Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier / USA Today)
