Chair, Los Angeles Chargers
Spanos is the owner and chair of the Los Angeles Chargers, which his family purchased in 1984. At the time, it was based in San Diego and sold for a cool $72 million. It is now worth roughly $4.2 billion. The team, which plays at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, is building a 14-acre training facility and corporate headquarters in El Segundo known as The Bolt. The center is being developed by Continental Development Corp. and Mar Ventures Inc. on land that was previously part of Raytheon’s expansive campus in the area. Gensler is designing the project which has 150,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space. In addition to a building holding office space, it will also have a media center and multiple fields, as well as room for spectators and a large parking lot. Since moving to L.A. the Chargers have reached the playoffs twice. Spanos is part of the NFL Leadership Hall of Fame. His family is involved in the team as well. In January, Spanos and son John Spanos, the team’s President of Football Operations signed National Champion Head Coach and former Chargers’ quarterback Jim Harbaugh away from Michigan to lead the Chargers.
What’s the best advice you ever got?
My father always said, ‘Be a good listener.’ You can’t learn if you don’t listen. Nobody knows it all. Nobody has all the answers. And if they tell you they do, well, they’re probably not listening at all.
YEARS ON LA500: 7
