Jeff Bezos’ link to Chargers ownership is not his first rodeo
Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is more than $180 billion, could easily afford to buy the Chargers. Dea Spanos Berberian, sister of Chargers controlling owner Dean Spanos, filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court asking it to order the sale of the team. Her petition notes that Bezos has expressed interest in buying an NFL team, which would take the financial burden off of the Spanos family.
Bezos is no stranger to the sports world, and some of his posts on Twitter are highlights from Super Bowl LIV. He was in a suite at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium to watch the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers. The billionaire seemed to be enjoying himself, taking a selfie with songstress Lizzo and referencing her viral smash hit “Truth Hurts.”
Amazon also paid to air a commercial for Alexa, its voice-activated personal assistant, during the past two Super Bowls. The first featured celebrity couple Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, while the one that appeared in the most recent Super Bowl starred actor Michael B. Jordan.
As owner of the Washington Post, Bezos has been floated as a good candidate to take over ownership of the NFL’s Washington Football Team. Current owner Daniel Snyder has faced criticism the past few years for his handling of the franchise, especially as the team seeks a new name and confronts sexual harassment claims.
There were reports in 2019 that Bezos was in talks to purchase the Detroit Lions. “No Filter Sports” podcast host Eli Zaret reported a source with knowledge of the talks indicated it was a real possibility.
“Here’s my bold prediction for 2020: this is one step removed from the actual source, but the step is a friend of mine who’ve had for many, many years who I trust totally, tells me to make this prediction in 2020 that Jeff Bezos will buy the Lions,” Zaret said. “... He has been here at least twice under the dark of night to have serious conversations.”
Bezos was also reportedly interested in purchasing the Seattle Seahawks after former owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen died in 2018. But rather than a sale, management duties were given to Allen’s sister Jody.
The quarrel within the Spanos family doesn’t help the Chargers’ standing in Los Angeles and could lead to a sale down the road.
Besides interest in the gridiron, Bezos has expressed a keen knowledge of baseball. In an April 2016 letter to Amazon shareholders, he reflected on the comparison of swinging for the fences to urge taking chances in business. A strikeout is always a risk in both worlds, but in business, the return can be much higher, he said.
“[B]aseball has a truncated outcome distribution,” he wrote. “When you swing, no matter how well you connect with the ball, the most runs you can get is four. In business, every once in a while, when you step up to the plate, you can score 1,000 runs.”
In 2017, the Baltimore Sun urged Bezos, fresh off Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, to purchase the Orioles and give the team enough cash flow to get some wins.
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