“Meanwhile, the trust is so heavily concentrated in owning a minority stake in a professional football team that beneficiaries have no choice but to depend almost solely on the rise or fall of the Team.” “Rather than seeking to monetize illiquid assets in order to pay debts and liabilities, and make distributions to beneficiaries, the Co-Trustees have principally been borrowing, including borrowing money from one bank to pay another,” the petition says. The debt includes $164 million “associated with the Trust’s Interest in the Chargers” and at least $75 million in estate tax. The petition paints a bleak picture of its finances, estimating an annual shortfall of $11 million with little cash flow or reason to believe the numbers will improve. The stake in the Chargers makes up 83% of the trust’s holdings. After Alex Spanos and his wife, Faye, died in 2018, Dean Spanos, the oldest of the four children, and Berberian were left as the sole co-trustees. The family trust controls 36% of the team, with the remainder owned by non-family members. Nearly four decades ago, the family patriarch, Alex Spanos, purchased a majority interest in the San Diego Chargers for $40 million.Įach of his four adult children - Alexandra Spanos Ruhl, Michael Spanos, Dean Spanos and Berberian - owns 15% of the Chargers. The petition notes reports that founder Jeff Bezos, worth an estimated $180 billion, is interested in becoming an NFL owner, and the legal filing says “the Chargers could be a perfect opportunity.” An NFL spokesman also declined to comment on the petition.Īlthough Forbes valued the Chargers at $2.6 billion last year, Berberian’s petition describes the team as a “rare trophy asset” and notes that “the price a buyer is willing to pay is often not dictated by any economic metric.” The NFL recently finalized massive new media rights deals that could be worth more than $10 billion per year, something the filing asserts “will certainly attract potential buyers.”
Streisand previously represented Steve Ballmer in his $2-billion purchase of the Clippers and Jeanie Buss in the family legal fight that cemented her as controlling owner of the Lakers. The fortune Alex Spanos amassed over six decades began with bologna.Īdam Streisand, the attorney for Berberian, declined to comment. is the biggest he’ll ever make and one he won’t escape
They added: “Operations of the Chargers will be entirely unaffected by this matter.”ĭean Spanos’ decision to move the Chargers to L.A. “Unfortunately, our sister Dea seems to have a different and misguided personal agenda.” “For the three of us, the Chargers is one of our family’s most important legacies, just as it was for our parents,” the statement said. They said that, if necessary, they were prepared to buy their sister’s stake in the franchise. In response to the filing, Dean Spanos and two of his siblings released a statement Thursday pledging to keep the team in the family. “Dean has failed to present any plan to address the Trust’s bleak financial picture, because there is no other plan than the one urged by. “Dean refuses to consider a sale of the Trust’s Interest of the Chargers, insisting that the Co-Trustees continue to borrow more and more, and to force the charities and beneficiaries to wait for years and to ‘hope’ while Dean speculates further on a football team,” the petition says. They now have an emerging superstar at quarterback in Justin Herbert and share the $5-billion SoFi Stadium with the Rams. When the Chargers moved to Los Angeles in 2017 after 56 seasons in San Diego, they faced the daunting task of paying off a $650-million relocation fee to the NFL and building a fan base in a market crowded with college and professional sports. “Every day that passes increases the risks that the charitable beneficiaries and the Spanos family legacy will suffer irreparable financial and reputational damage,” the petition says.
In addition, according to the filing, the trust doesn’t have a plan to pay more than $22 million it has pledged to charities. The petition by Dea Spanos Berberian, who serves as co-trustee of the family trust along with her brother, alleges the trust’s debts and expenses exceed $353 million. In it, she argues that mounting debt has imperiled the family’s finances and that the only solution is to put the NFL franchise on the market. In an attempt to force the sale of the Chargers, a sister of controlling owner Dean Spanos filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday.