B
uilding a new sports facility in San Francisco’s regulatory environment makes for a tough job, but Gail Hunter, vice president of public affairs and event management for the Golden State Warriors, is adroitly navigating the challenges.
Gail
Hunter
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
Since taking the job with the Warriors in 2012, Hunter has played a key role for the club as the franchise edges closer to breaking ground on a $1 billion arena and entertainment complex in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.
“I am involved in the development of the community engagement strategy and dealing with the outreach within the community,” Hunter said.
The Mission Bay project comes after the Warriors abandoned plans to build on the waterfront in downtown San Francisco because of environmental and other regulatory issues. “The old site was directly on the water, which brought a whole host of land issues that we don’t have on [the Mission Bay] property,” Hunter said.
But in addition to running point on the community outreach efforts related to the new arena project, Hunter is responsible for event management at the team’s current home, Oracle Arena in Oakland. That means a balancing act between the new and the old, but it also allows Hunter to draw on her experience. Before coming to Golden State, she spent a decade with the NBA league office working as senior vice president of events and attractions.
“It has come in handy,” Hunter said of her prior NBA job. “It is how you react as things happen.”
— John Lombardo
