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Posted (edited)

The leverage here for Dea Spanos is that the NFL hates litigation involving the teams.

 

Especially here, where financials and other dirty laundry will come sailing into the public record.

 

Advantage:  Dea

 

She just wants to get bought out, at the best price.  She doesnt want to ruin the 'legacy' of the Spanos name being synonymous with the Chargers.  Dad would roll over.

 

The WFT minority owners just got bought out a couple weeks ago, after protracted legal sabre rattling.  Coincidence? 

Edited by maddenboy
Posted (edited)

"Legacy".... lol

 

That legacy was tied to San Diego.

 

I'm glad Ralph at least made it a point not to move the team...

 

On the surface, it seems like a similar situation where they've tried to make the team as profitable as possible while investing as little money into it as possible.

Edited by LeGOATski
Posted

More just word association.

 

I say "Spanos."  You think . . . "Chargers."  Otherwise, she walks into some upper-crusty place and says the name Spanos as if the heavens should part and time should stop, and instead . . . crickets.

 

 

Posted
2 hours ago, aristocrat said:

Does it specify what the debt is from? The move? It’s an la team that now has a qb they are about to start printing money especially with the new tv deal.  They need to just buy her out 

 

The move in part:

Quote

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 fanbase in a market crowded with college and professional sports. They now have an emerging superstar at quarterback in Justin Herbert and share the $5-billion SoFi Stadium with the Rams.

 

Quote

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 addition, according to the filing, the trust doesn’t have a plan to pay more than $22 million it has pledged to charities.

 

Quote

According to the filing, Berberian “attempted numerous times and numerous ways” to resolve the dispute. That included mediation with a retired L.A. County Superior Court judge that didn’t work.

 

Quote

The stake in the Chargers makes up 83% of the trust’s holdings. 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 debt includes $164 million “associated with the Trust’s Interest in the Chargers” and at least $75 million in estate tax.

 

“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 said. “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.”

 

Posted
3 hours ago, scuba guy said:

This just shows how spoiled the super rich are. 

Well young lady get rid of the maid the butler the dog walker the hair stylish. The house in vail the resort in Italy. The yacht.

 

What did I forget $30 pint of ice cream

Oops that was the other spoiled brat

 

First of all, she's not a "young lady", neither is she properly described as "Chargers owners Sister".  She owns as much of the team as her other 3 siblings, and is co-trustee with Dean of the family trust, and we have no reason to consider her a "spoiled brat"

 

Second, I doubt eliminating the various employees or the $30 pint of ice cream are  going to go very far to pay the $650M relocation fee the Chargers owe to the NFL, nor to settle the rest of the $353M debt the "Family Trust" is in.  Quite the stretch to assume that her personal expenses are either solely or significantly responsible for these.

 

I would guess that the 36% share of the the $650M NFL relo fee is a majority of the debt [Edit: yes, says $164M is associated with the Chargers and another $75M is Estate Tax].  If the trust wasn't carefully set up by Spanos, Sr, it could have incurred bequest and charitable liabilities that are still ongoing while it's in debt.

 

It sounds like Dean Spanos doesn't really have a good financial plan for executing his responsiblity as a co-trustee of the family trust, and his sister has tried mediation and other avenues to work out a realistic plan to no avail.

 

 

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Mark Vader said:

They do exist, I have some good friends who are Chargers fans.

 

They still hate that Spanos moved them out of San Diego.

 

I have family in SD and have been to several games there.  Yes, they do have a solid fanbase.  My family there is all Bills fans, however.  The reason nobody went to the games in the soccer stadium is primarily that this was a transition stadium on their way from SD to LA.  The team had already left SD, so why would SD fans go there to support a team that just abandoned their city?  Also, the soccer stadium is in Long Beach and that's a fairly long drive from SD with tons of traffic. 

 

If the Bills left Buffalo for Toronto and played one or two seasons in a soccer stadium an hour north of Toronto while the new stadium was being built, would you go?

 

If this whole Spanos trust lawsuit ends up in the team being sold, I would love to see the new owner bring it back to SD where it belongs.

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Posted
6 minutes ago, msw2112 said:

 

I have family in SD and have been to several games there.  Yes, they do have a solid fanbase.  My family there is all Bills fans, however.  The reason nobody went to the games in the soccer stadium is primarily that this was a transition stadium on their way from SD to LA.  The team had already left SD, so why would SD fans go there to support a team that just abandoned their city?  Also, the soccer stadium is in Long Beach and that's a fairly long drive from SD with tons of traffic. 

 

If the Bills left Buffalo for Toronto and played one or two seasons in a soccer stadium an hour north of Toronto while the new stadium was being built, would you go?

 

If this whole Spanos trust lawsuit ends up in the team being sold, I would love to see the new owner bring it back to SD where it belongs.

Me too. San Diego is a beautiful area.

 

Also, it is/was the best road trip for Bills fans whenever the Bills played there. The San Diego Bills Backers would make it the most fun weekend you could have.

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Posted
2 hours ago, JoPoy88 said:

Apparently the family trust (the trust owns 36% of the team) has long-standing charitable obligations that are bleeding it dry.

 

This on Twitter allegedly from the filing:

image.thumb.png.77655a422f195e545bdaf1e41eb89c47.png

 

I believe from stuff elsewhere, the majority of the "Advances from related entities and family" was to pay off a share of the NFL's $650M relocation fee

 

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Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, aristocrat said:

Does it specify what the debt is from? The move? It’s an la team that now has a qb they are about to start printing money especially with the new tv deal.  They need to just buy her out 

 

The team isn't in debt, the Family Trust which owns part of the team is..

Edited by jeremy2020
Posted

The team went from a move to no attendees so a tough time.  Whether she wants out or not is above my pay grade.  I’m not going to make a quick assessment on her.  I have no idea of her intentions.

 

the intentions could be good or not.  Sounds for whatever reason she wanted out.

Posted
5 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

I really just want to give a franchise to Trump and reinstate his twitter account.  That would be insanely fun.

 

had he bought the Bills - he would not have run for president in 2016 (Just stating a fact - no political diatribe responses please)

Posted
5 hours ago, glazeduck said:

It's sort of a viscous cycle.

 

Owners are usually very collaborative in trying to continue to improving the product so they can continue to make more money. Spanos consistently refuses to collaborate OR spend money, opting instead to basically just bathe in the work that others have done and not do his part, so owners hate him.

 

He took for granted a really great and passionate fanbase in San Diego and moved the team to LA because of the market, despite knowing that there was not and would not be a great amount of fan support there. In LA, you're competing with USC football, the Raiders, the Rams, the beach, the Lakers, the Dodgers, the Angels, Disneyland, UCLA football (to a lesser degree), etc. So now he's in a market with no fan support, no stadium and really no additional owners support. It's a mess.

Thanks brother!

  • Thank you (+1) 1
Posted
6 hours ago, 17islongenough said:

How does an NFL owner get in that much debt? 

 

Ask Leonard Tose or Art Modell....

5 hours ago, glazeduck said:

It's sort of a viscous cycle.

 

A thick cycle?

  • Haha (+1) 2
Posted
1 hour ago, ticketssince61 said:

 

had he bought the Bills - he would not have run for president in 2016 (Just stating a fact - no political diatribe responses please)

Probably.  I know it wouldn’t be called Highmark stadium.  That’s for sure.

Posted
15 hours ago, Freddie's Dead said:

 

Ask Leonard Tose or Art Modell....

 

I didn't know who Leonard Tose was - so i looked him up. The Wikipedia entry has this:  

 

"In 1985, after a failed attempt to swap franchises with Ralph Wilson (whose Buffalo Bills were then under severe distress),[6] Tose was forced to sell the Eagles to Norman Braman and Ed Leibowitz, highly successful automobile dealers from Florida, for a reported $65 million to pay off his more than $25 million in gambling debts at Atlantic City casinos."

 

Anyone ever heard of this before?  I have not.

Posted
On 4/1/2021 at 1:06 PM, 17islongenough said:

How does an NFL owner get in that much debt? 

By having no loyalty to their fans. I don't like owners that abandon a fan base doing its best to support the team. The Davis family comes to mind.

Posted
On 4/2/2021 at 12:17 PM, Philly McButterpants said:

I didn't know who Leonard Tose was - so i looked him up. The Wikipedia entry has this:  

 

"In 1985, after a failed attempt to swap franchises with Ralph Wilson (whose Buffalo Bills were then under severe distress),[6] Tose was forced to sell the Eagles to Norman Braman and Ed Leibowitz, highly successful automobile dealers from Florida, for a reported $65 million to pay off his more than $25 million in gambling debts at Atlantic City casinos."

 

Anyone ever heard of this before?  I have not.

 

MIGHT, MAYBE, COULD - speculation words.  

https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2017/12/11/buffalo-eagles-philadelphia-bills-it-might-have.html

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