Bay to Breakers is sold.
Long live Bay to Breakers.
The legendary and notorious San Francisco footrace -- which has become known for public displays of boorish boozing as much as it has for actual, you know, racing -- has a new owner, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Wasserman Media Group has bought the race from AEG, the entertainment conglomerate owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, who used to own the San Francisco Examiner, the newspaper reported.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed -- but terms of the new race are "fun" and "safe," the newspaper reported.
Wasserman Media Group pledges to double down on fun. According to an interview with the newspaper, Casey Wasserman, the CEO, wants "to put the fun back in and ramp up the fun quotient."
Sounds... fun?
The race of late has been anything but for some interested parties, like San Francisco police and residents fed up with drunken revelers urinating on their property. There has also been some tragedy: in 2012, a man died after being punched, and this year a 28-year old man died after falling from a roof, and a 27-year old man disappeared after finishing the race.
The race has also struggled for sponsorship, going through three title sponsors in 10 years -- and no title sponsor at all in May, the newspaper noted.
Wasserman pledged to find a sponsor -- he, after all, negotiated Levi Strauss & Co.'s $220 million naming rights deal on the new 49er's stadium in Santa Clara -- and also pledged to increase participation.
