{"id":151435,"date":"2025-07-06T15:30:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T15:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/151435\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T15:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T15:30:21","slug":"pistons-owner-tom-gores-to-acquire-27-of-nfls-chargers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/151435\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons Owner Tom Gores to Acquire 27% of NFL\u2019s Chargers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDetroit Pistons<\/a> owner Tom Gores has reached an agreement to buy a 27% stake in the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>, according to three people familiar with the details. The deal still requires approval from NFL<\/a> owners.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf completed, the transaction would end a years-long saga involving the four children of Alex Spanos, the longtime owner who bought the Chargers in 1984 for $72 million and died in 2018. Financial terms of the transaction were not available. Last month, Sportico valued<\/a> the Chargers at $5.22 billion, 18th in the NFL.<\/p>\n

\n\tRepresentatives for the Chargers, Pistons and Gores declined to comment. Sports Business Journal was the first to report the news.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlex Spanos\u2019 four kids\u2014Dean, Dea, Michael and Alexandra\u2014own 15% of the Chargers on their own, with another 36% total held in a family trust. In 2021, Dea Spanos Berberian filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior\u00a0Court to try and force a Chargers sale. A year later, she filed a petition<\/a> that accused her brother and fellow co-trustee, Chargers chairman Dean Spanos<\/a>, of breaching his fiduciary duty to the trust. Berberian also accused Dean and their brother, Chargers vice chairman Michael Spanos, of orchestrating a \u201ccampaign to punish, belittle and humiliate\u201d her.<\/p>\n

\n\tGores is buying Berberian\u2019s 15% personal stake and her 9% stake in the family trust, as well as 1% from each of Dean Spanos\u2019 other children. The deal would leave each Spanos with a 24% stake, while Gores will hold 27%. Dean, Alexis and Michael are selling 1% apiece for estate planning purposes, according to someone familiar with the details.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe transaction would end all of Berberian\u2019s legal disputes against her siblings and the Chargers.<\/p>\n

\n\tBerberian has explored the sale<\/a> of her Chargers stake for more than a year. A deal with Clearlake Capital Group co-founders Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano fell apart over the control issue. The Gores transaction does not include any path to control, and Dean Spanos will continue to maintain full control of the Chargers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Chargers had the second-lowest revenue in the NFL last year, as they are a tenant at SoFi Stadium where Stan Kroenke and the Los Angeles Rams control almost all of the revenue streams. But playing in the NFL\u2019s second-biggest market is a boost to the value, on top of the $400 million-plus annual check from the league\u2019s rich TV deals.<\/p>\n

\n\tGores bought the Pistons for $325 million in 2011. The team has made the playoffs only twice under Gores and\u00a0finished with the NBA\u2019s worst overall record two straight years, including a 28-game losing streak last season. The Pistons fired<\/a> coach Monty Williams one season into his record-breaking six-year, $78 million contract. The Pistons are valued at $3.1 billion, 25th in the NBA, according to Sportico.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal does not impact Gores\u2019 role as owner of the Pistons.<\/p>\n

\n\tGores is worth $9.4 billion, according to Forbes. In 1995, he founded L.A.-based private equity firm Platinum Equity. Last month, NFL owners approved<\/a> investment by a handful of PE firms, but this transaction is a personal investment for Gores and does not involve Platinum.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal is expected to go up for a vote at next month\u2019s NFL owners meetings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores has reached an agreement to buy a 27% stake in the Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,28884,296,188,3860,14288,6,9,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-151435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dean-spanos","10":"tag-detroit","11":"tag-detroit-pistons","12":"tag-detroitpistons","13":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114807008578284083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}