Chargers Resolve Family Ownership Drama With Sale of Share to Pistons Owner

Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores is buying more than a quarter of the Los Angeles Chargers, ending a years-long battle among the team’s sibling ownership, pending approval from other NFL owners.

Ownership of the Chargers had previously been split among the Spanos family: 15% for each of the four siblings—Dean, the majority owner; Michael; Dea Spanos Berberian; and Alexis Spanos Ruhl—and the remaining 36% in a family trust. Gores is taking the spot of Berberian, who has waged multiple legal fights against her siblings, including trying to force a sale of the team, and suing her brothers for “misogynistic” behavior, “self-dealing,” and “breaches of fiduciary duty” in their ownership of the team.

Gores is getting Berberian’s 24% overall ownership in the team that includes her personal ownership stake (15%) and her portion of the family trust (9%), a source familiar with the situation to Front Office Sports. It’s unclear exactly how much Gores is paying for the team, but  the Chargers are valued at more than $5 billion, according to Forbes.

Sports Business Journal first reported the transaction.

Overall, Gores, founder and CEO of the private equity firm Platinum Equity, is buying 27% of the Chargers. The other 3% comes from her three siblings’ stakes in the Chargers. The NFL’s finance committee has approved the purchase, so the next step is a full ownership vote that could come at the next owners meeting in Atlanta on Oct. 15–16. Dean Spanos will remain the controlling owner of the team, and Gores does not have a pathway to take that role, the source said. Non-family members own the remaining 4% of the team.

Berberian has looked to sell her stake in the team for more than a year. Chelsea FC co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano were interested, Bloomberg reported in March 2023. But those talks fell apart somewhat because of the pair’s interest in gaining controlling ownership of the team, according to SBJ.

Gores won’t have any day-to-day involvement with managing the Chargers, but he takes one of the largest minority stakes in the league. He bought the Pistons for $325 million in 2011. Despite his team’s historic poor performance, the team is now valued at more than $3 billion and, in December, called fan chants for him to sell the team “ridiculous thoughts.”

A.J. Perez contributed to this report.