From late 2012 through April 2014, Shandobil Communications worked with former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, consultant Jim Stearns and the San Francisco Waterfront Alliance to successfully block the Golden Gate Warriors planned move to Piers 30-32 on San Francisco Bay.
When the basketball team’s owners first announced their plans to build an arena, shopping mall, condo tower and a hotel at the foot of the Bay Bridge, the massive project seemed like a slam-dunk. The team’s billionaire owners hired some of California’s top political consultants and won over virtually every major politician in Northern California including former mayors Gavin Newsom, Willie Brown and current mayor Ed Lee who was so enthusiastic in his endorsement, that he called it his “legacy project.”
Noting how outgunned our alliance was, the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed it a “David versus Goliath” battle. But in the end, the Warriors realizing they faced growing public opposition and potentially years of legal hurdles, gave up on the piers and announced a new plan to build in another part of the city.
Shandobil Communications worked to get the mainstream media to look past the Warriors’ money and glitz and instead to focus on the environmental and traffic concerns associated with the project. Randy Shandobil also helped organize and participated in the first broadcast debate on the issue.
