Dean Spanos’ Sister Asks LA Court To Force Sale Of Chargers

The Chargers ownership situation might be getting messy. 

Nathan Fenno of the LA Times is reporting that Dea Spanos Berberian, the sister of Chargers controlling owner Dean Spanos, has filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday arguing that mounting debt has imperiled the family’s finances and the only solution is to put the team up for sale.

“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 said.

The Spanos family has had majority ownership of the Chargers since 1984.

Last year, Forbes valued the team at $2.6 billion, but the petition noted that “the price a buyer is willing to pay is often not dictated by any economic metric.”

The league recently finalized massive new media rights deals worth $10 billion annually and the filing asserts that could attract buyers for the team.

The petition also notes that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is interested in becoming an NFL owner and said “the Chargers could be a perfect opportunity.”

“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,” Berberian’s court filing said. “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 [Berberian]. Dean simply refuses to discuss it. …His plan is hope.”

Berberian says the trust’s debts and expenses exceed $353 million. Although Berberian says her brother has agreed to retain an investment bank at the end of the 2024 season to find a new owner, she says the debt is piling up and the trust cannot wait that long.

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