Running a soccer franchise is hard. Running a soccer franchise in Oakland, California is doubly difficult. Oakland, a rough & tumble port city across the bay from San Francisco, has traditionally been a hotbed for professional sports, and the locus of that has been the Oakland Coliseum.
In its heyday football’s Raiders, baseball’s Athletics, and basketball’s Golden State Warriors all called the complex home, and won championships there. Today, all three franchises are gone. But the Coliseum remained, empty aside from the odd event, for years.
The Last Team Standing
The Oakland Roots, a USL Championship franchise, moved into this beloved but long-in-the-tooth venue for their 2025 season. Optimism was high, and the club entered the USL Top Ten rankings for attendance in their opening match. In 2025, Oakland was sixth in overall attendance, averaging just under 9,000, with over 136,000 coming out to watch. It is estimated that the Roots have generated over $80M in local economic impact for the community.
This week, it surfaced that the club was in arrears in payments to the Oakland Coliseum Joint Powers Authority (JPA), the consortium who own and operate the venue. The JPA who went public on local news channels demanding that the Roots pay up, or face eviction mid-season with five home games remaining.
Roots Fire Back
The club released this message yesterday to its supporters: “You may have read that the Club is in arrears with its payment to the Coliseum. That is true.” They’re pointing fingers at the JPA for some of their current problems. Roots claim the current operating agreement “presents significant challenges for the Club.”
There is no revenue share for parking. They must pay a minimum deposit for concession sales for every game day, but earn nothing if that minimum is exceeded. They also have to forfeit a portion of ticket sales. Furthermore, they are prohibited from selling sponsorships in the venue, further constricting revenue streams.
The club invested $700,000 to upgrade the stadium’s field to international soccer standards, only to be kicked out of the venue for five weeks in June while Major League Cricket used the stadium for matches. The club was not compensated for that lost time, or the game they had to host in an alternate venue.
Plan in Place
The club announced: “We have presented a payment plan that would ensure the cost of future matches are paid in advance – including last week’s and this week’s game – and any additional amounts owed to the JPA are paid in full by the end of the 2026 season.”
The club’s statement continued, “For eight years, Oakland Roots Sports Club has proudly represented Oakland, Alameda County, and the greater East Bay. Two years ago, we chose to play at the Coliseum to continue its sporting legacy and because we believe Oakland deserves a professional club that reflects The Town’s grit, diversity, and heart.” The remainder of the statement outlined their plans to resolve the situation.
IMPORTANT: Saturday’s August 1st game against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds is still scheduled and will kick off at 7pm as normal.
Meeting July 31
Roots and JPA are meeting on Friday at 7pm to discuss the club’s plan. Roots encourage the community to speak up, write local representatives, and express their support for the club, and for the future of professional sports in Oakland. Below are all the details:
- Agenda: https://www.theoaklandarena.com/about-us/coliseum-authority/meetings
- When: Friday, Jul 31, 2026 09:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
- Topic: OACCA Special Board Meeting 7/31/26
- Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88587939276?pwd=BCzY-M0U2VVaeU0oRS0sCwrFRZXtYw.aA0_8somjwJLxAID
- Passcode: 463364
- Local representative emails:
- Oakland City Council District 7 and JPA Board Member – Ken Houston – District7@oaklandca.gov
- Oakland City Council District 6 and JPA Board Member – Kevin Jenkins – District6@oaklandca.gov
- Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 4 and JPA Board Member – Nate Miley – District4@acgov.org
- Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 1 and JPA Board Member – David Haubert – bosdist1@acgov.org
