2010 Bay to Breakers Alert! AEG Worldwide Engaged in Multi-Year Campaign to Destroy San Francisco Tradition

The 2010 ING Bay to Breakers rules were quietly announced last week…and if you aren’t alarmed…you should be.

We are now witnessing a sustained, multi-year campaign to destroy Bay to Breakers

Last week, Los Angeles-based race owner and organizer, AEG Worldwide, quietly updated their ING Bay to Breakers course map and start line instructions on their website to exclude floats from the start of the 2010 race, an unprecedented change and significant departure from the 2009 compromises reached after they waged a sustained campaign to ban alcohol, nudity and floats from the 99-year old San Francisco tradition.

At the same time these new restrictions were posted, they directed San Francisco crisis consultant, publicist Sam Singer, to release a story to the San Francisco Chronicle entitled 99th Bay to Breakers to be much like the 98th. AEG is attempting to hide the new restrictions and avoid another public relations disaster akin to 2009, when groups like Citizens for the Preservation of Bay2Breakers (CPBB), with over 25,000 members, were quickly formed to fight the hijacking of one of San Francisco’s defining traditions.

We are not going to let this corporation quietly destroy our city’s traditions

We again call on the citizens of this great city and the citizens of the world who love San Francisco, its values and traditions, to fight AEG’s continued attacks on the Bay to Breakers tradition. Join our group and spread the word to fight this injustice. 2009 was the cleanest and most responsible Bay to Breakers event in recent history. Let’s continue on the positive tone set in 2009 and prevent our great traditions from being hijacked by an out of town corporate giant with a right wing agenda and a thirst for profit.

Please help us preserve B2B.  Post this as your Facebook status:
AEG is trying to destroy Bay to Breakers again.  Help us save it! 1) Join Facebook group Citizens for the Preservation of Bay2Breakers http://www.facebook.com/citizensf?ref=ts 2) Invite your friends 3) Post this as your status. 4) Call Mayor Newsom’s office (415-554-6141) and ask them to save B2B.

And for more about AEG’s anti-San Francisco shenanigans, read on

In the words of Carol Ann from 1986’s Poltergeist II… “They’re baaaack.”

Make no mistake, this is the sequel. The sequel to a horror story about an out-of-town, profit-hungry, extremist conservative organization bent on eliminating all the fun and unique tradition that Bay to Breakers has evolved into in a hundred years. This ruthless company is AEG Worldwide, the often controversial and bully tactic organization owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, a Christian activist and republican donor who is a generous supporter of anti-gay-rights legislation, intelligent design, the Bush administration and efforts to sanitize television. Read more about Philip Anschutz and his controversial organization.

The sterilization of San Francisco’s beloved Bay to Breakers is just another step in AEG’s campaign to apply their extremist conservative values and profiteering to a uniquely San Francisco pastime. AEG acquired the century old race in 2004 with their purchase of the San Francisco Examiner newspaper, the previous owner and race organizer, ending a 93-year tradition of San Francisco ownership.

After the 2009 bans and new 2010 restrictions, if you still doubt the motivations of AEG and its owner, Philip Anschutz, read on…

“Named Fortune’s “greediest executive” in 1999, the Denver resident is a generous supporter of anti-gay-rights legislation, intelligent design, the Bush administration and efforts to sanitize television. With a net worth of $5 billion, he is Forbes ’ thirty-fourth richest American, two spots above Revlon’s Ronald Perelman. Anschutz heads a vast media empire whose assets include the Examiner chain, twenty percent of the country’s movie screens, and a sizeable stake in Qwest Communications, the scandal-ridden telecom giant he formerly directed. (Anschutz was accused of helping falsely inflate Qwest profit reports, then making millions by selling his own shares in the company — a claim he ultimately settled by paying millions to charity.)”

– excerpt from Justin Clark’s 2006 article Citizen Anschutz

CPBB became aware of the new 2010 float restrictions only after they were posted on the ING Bay to Breakers website and the SF Chronicle article was published. Even with an organization of more than 25,000 members built in just a couple of weeks in 2009 to fight AEG’s bans and preserve the traditions of the race, AEG did not approach CPBB or any of its officers to discuss the new 2010 restrictions prior to their announcement. AEG did not approach Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s office or the Board of Supervisors to discuss the new 2010 restrictions. AEG did not approach Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office to discuss the new 2010 restrictions. AEG did not approach the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association to discuss staging floats in their neighborhood instead of at the start of the race.

Instead, and once again, AEG retained a highly-priced crisis consultant to stage the story in the press and gloss over the simple fact that…

AEG is now engaged in a long-term dismantling of San Francisco’s beloved Bay to Breakers footrace.

This will be a sustained, multi-year campaign to end the fun on the part of AEG. Don’t let them ruin the spirit of Bay to Breakers. Please join us and fight this injustice!

Comments

[tom]

AEG are idiots. Tell them we'll encourage every "floater" to pay the lower registration price, because it's the right thing to do, and because it was our idea. Therefore, they get more money. Remind them that they've created this situation by raising the price every year for features of the race that most people don't care about - i.e., timing and scoring transponders and t-shirts. This is a celebration of the city of San Francisco, and has been in place for 100 years. It was created to lift the city's spirits after the 1906 earthquake. If they don't understand it, they should go suck it back in LA and leave our city alone.