Chargers Up For Sale? Spanos Sister Trying To Force Family To Sell
By Rebekah Gonzalez
April 2, 2021
On Thursday, April 1, Dea Spanos Berberian petitioned the court to put the Chargers up for sale.
According to NBC7, the Spanos family has owned the San Diego Chargers since 1984, but that could come to an end if Berberian convinces a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to force a sale of the team.
The Chargers announced their move from San Diego to Los Angeles in 2017.
Her brother, Dean Spanos, who manages operations of the team says their parents "wanted the Chargers to be part of the Spanos family for generations to come."
He says he and their two other siblings are willing to buy her out if they have to.
Berberian's petition argues that the family trust's "bleak financial picture" is a compelling reason to sell the Chargers.
"The trust’s debts and expenses exceed $353 million, assuming that the IRS ultimately agrees with the valuation of assets and liabilities when it conducts its likely audit of the settlors’ estate tax returns," the petition states. "The trust has virtually no income and no liquidity: its annual debt service and expenses currently exceed income by more than $11 million."
After his sister's petition was filed Dean released a statement saying, "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. Unfortunately, our sister Dea seems to have a different and misguided personal agenda. If Dea no longer wishes to be part of this family legacy, the three of us stand ready to purchase her share of the franchise, as our agreements give us the right to do."
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