Chargers Set to Sell 27% Stake of Team to NBA Owner

Valentina Martinez | 5 Hours Ago

Jul 24, 2024; El Segundo, CA, USA; Los Angeles Chargers owner and chairman of the board Dean Spanos cuts a ribbon to celebrating the official opening of The Bolt prior to the first day of training camp. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images / Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores has a deal in place to purchase 27 percent of the Los Angeles Chargers, per Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal.

Final approval of the deal from NFL owners is expected to transpire next month. The NFL finance committee was debriefed on the Gores transaction earlier this week. The final action of the deal is scheduled to take place when NFL owners meet in Atlanta on Oct. 15-16.

If the deal is closed, the sale would end a long-standing dispute between Dea Spanos Berberian and her three siblings, including majority owner Dean Spanos.

In 2021, Spanos Berberian filed a petition asking an LA Superior Court judge to force a sale of the team, citing mismanagement by Dean Spanos led to "intractable debt, which was, in turn, jeopardizing the family's wealth."

Spanos Berberian gave up her efforts to force a sale of the entire team and pivoted her focus to exiting her own stake in the Chargers.

Spanos Berberian is a current Chargers limited partner. If the sale were to go through, she would fully exit her position with the Chargers organization.

The deal would make Gores one of the NFL's largest non-ownership family equity holders in any team. Gores can't take majority control of the team, a caveat that halted earlier attempts to finalize a deal.

Talks with Clearlake Capital Group co-founders Behdad Eghbali and Jose E. Feliciano fell apart last year partially because of issues with control of the team.

The precise terms of the deal haven't been disclosed. However, estimates of the team's value by Forbes, Sportico, and CNBC range between $5.1-$5.83B. The Chargers franchise is also estimated to carry approximately $816M in debt, according to Forbes and CNBC.

Gores would acquire the entire 15 percent Spanos Berberian owns individually. The billionaire would also receive her nine percent stake in the family trust that owns 36 percent of the team.

Additionally, Gores would acquire a percent each from Dean Spanos, Michael Spanos, and Alexis Spanos Ruhl.

If the deal comes to fruition, each of the three Spanos siblings would own 24 percent individually and Gores would hold 27 percent.

There has been no comment from the Chargers or Gores at this time. There likely won't be any public statements made by either parties until the deal is finalized.

A source relayed that Gores' minority position with the Chargers wouldn't distract the billionaire from his goals with the Pistons, according to Fischer.