'Community-centric, community focused' - The NBA's Warriors, MLB's Athletics and NFL's Raiders all fled Oakland, but USL club has deep Roots in a city others abandoned

This starts - and ends - with money. Every single owner to pass through Oakland with a major professional sports franchise has bolted for greener pastures with financial interests in mind.

The Golden State Warriors, who enjoyed immense success in the latter years at the Oracle Arena, realized they could make more money in San Francisco. The Raiders - who have now left the city twice - bolted for the bright lights of Las Vegas. And the Athletics will follow, playing in Sacramento before moving across state lines in 2028.

It is, in many way, the death of sporting culture in the city. Oakland Coliseum is the birthplace of "the wave" - the fan cheer created in 1981, and now featured in almost all sporting events. The Black Hole was one of NFL’s finest fan groups in their day. The Warriors, when successful, curated one of the best home atmospheres in American sports. The best days of the Coliseum as both a baseball and football venue are still held in high regard.

These days, though, just the soccer team is left. The Roots bounced around various venues in their first few years of existence, playing on a Cal State campus in the nearby city of Hayward. Now, though, they’re back in the town of their namesake. And they argue that they’re the only team that has been truly authentic to this city - uncompromising when others so readily uprooted.

"I was excited, actually," Warren Chu, a spokesperson for the group Save Oakland Sports told FOX 2 Sports. "First, it's really, something positive and the opportunity to play at the Oakland Coliseum is great. It's a great facility for fans."

The first thing that catches the eye is the kits. American soccer, in some ways, has a problem with authenticity. Some names - Real Salt Lake, Chicago Fire, the chucking of an “SC” at the end of any random town - feel like caricatures of European clubs.

In a country that is still in its gestation period with the sport, how do you create a product that fans can relate to? How can this franchise, which has only existed since 2019, represent the 464,000 residents of this town?

A good starting point, Roots president and co-founder Edreece Arghandiwal argues, is to piece together something desirable. And Oakland has done just that. They technically don’t have a team color, their jerseys a patchwork of hues and shades. The kits, then, are unique, a world away from the standard templates of MLS or the U.S. national teams. It doesn’t hurt the finances whatsoever, with the club’s merchandise routinely outselling those of major American soccer sides, Arghandiwal said.

But this isn’t just technicolor for the sake of. Oakland is, on the face of things, a tricky city to represent. Both the Hell’s Angels and Black Panthers were founded here. It is 27 percent Latino, 22 percent Black and 16 percent Asian. Simple tones can’t come close to representing all of that. So, everything is bright and vivid.

Even the name circles back into that same principle. This is a club that, quite literally, recognizes its roots. It’s a pun hiding in plain sight.

“We came up with the name that is authentic to our city,” Hodul said.

And the club has done pretty much everything to back that up. The training ground - formerly owned by the now-Las Vegas Raiders - is complete with murals and street art from the local communities. A local artist is painting a canvas of every single home game this season.

A land blessing, effectively a homage to the Native American community, was conducted before the home opener - acknowledging the land they play on was once inhabited by Native Americans. At that same game, local rap legend Too $hort - a pioneer of West Coast Hop Hop who worked with both Tupac and the Norotious B.I.G. - put on a half time performance.

"There's a relationship. You have to understand that what uplifts Oakland isn't only sports. There's a thousand things that do. The history here will tell you that everybody's welcome,” Hodul said.

So why has all of these teams left? If this place is so special, so deeply rooted in community, why are the Roots the only club that remain? Hodul argues that it’s a financial issue. In the history of all American sports, franchises uproot and find new spots where fans will happily pay big money to come to state of the art stadiums. The Los Angeles Rams did it in 2016, but this has been happening since the mid 1900s. California alone has seen 10 teams change locations alone in the last 50 years.

“You go and find a community that is so desperate for identity and self identity that you can convince them to play hundreds of millions of dollars to build you a stadium that you then get to have for free,” Hodul said. “And what I mean by that is these billionaire owners are getting the poorest people in the world to build them something, and then they are in control of it.”

The Roots have gone the opposite way.

“What we are doing in Oakland is very much indicative of the right process and how things should be built,” Arghandiwal said. “Which is community-centric, community focused, built by common people, by the people that support the effort, day-in and day-out.”

While there is no denying that any team would like a state of the art, new facility, local dollars are going elsewhere. Hodul insists that they’re fine with that reality.

“The city of Oakland has come from very, very liberal, forward thinking people and understand funding Oakland education is more important than funding a billionaire's project, of any type, not just sports. And I think that Oakland is going to be last city that will get scammed by this,” Hodul said.

Of course, money plays a factor here. And the Roots have more than enough to get by, as well as a stadium to play in - even if it has its critics. Communities local and abroad have seen that, too, with the club raising $3.8 million from 6,000 investors last year. There is also a celebrity influence to be found here. Former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch is in the ownership group. Green Day singer Billy Joe Armstrong and NBA Hall of Famer Jason Kidd also have stakes.

"When I got the opportunity to come home and play my final seasons in the Coli, it was special,” Lynch said. “I won OAL titles there with Oakland Tech. What that building means to Oakland and the culture is everything. Now we got Roots moving in and we gonna hold it down.”

Michael Lewis’ landmark book Moneyball chronicled a famous Oakland team. General manager Billy Beane, along with his backroom staff, took the cash-strapped A's, reinvented the way to think about baseball, and watched a plucky 25-man roster make the playoffs after losing three crucial players.

But the A's lost in the first round of the playoffs, beaten by the Yankees, the very team that pinched their best hitter. The book is about reinvention and tells the story of a crucial moment in sports history. It’s also a typically Oakland tale, one full of hope that ends in failure.

Local fans and club representatives will tell you that winning is still a priority here. The Raiders won a Super Bowl in Oakland. The Athletics claimed nine World Series titles. And with USL facing a pivotal moment, with the introduction of promotion and relegation as well as a Division One league soon to come, Arghandiwal insists the club wants to be at the top.

“And I think we can be as big as Barcelona one day," Arghandiwal boasted. "And we're at the forefront of all of that."

It would seem to be a clash. Multiple owners told GOAL that promotion to a revamped top tier of American soccer would require injections of cash from elsewhere. The same might apply to the Roots. Foreign investors and local communities, historically, haven’t always mixed well.

And winning, of course, doesn't always come easily.

The Roots have made playoffs four times in the past five seasons. But it’s been a poor start to 2025. Oakland has drawn one game and lost three so far this season. If this is a campaign in which they are to fly the flag of their city alone, then it’s not a promising beginning on the pitch.

Fans haven’t been afraid to express their dissatisfaction in the past, either. The Roots, a trio of supporters groups argued, should be better and more ambitious for a team of their market size. Merely making the playoffs isn’t enough. Championships should be the goal here. They came together last November to call out the “clear disconnect between our expectations as fans and the expectations of executives.”

There are also long term questions about their venue. The Coliseum was supposed to be a one-year pitstop while a new facility was built for 2026. The club announced in January that they will likely be in the historic ground for longer - especially given the departure of the A's.

Ultimately, Rasmussen’s bicycle kick also came in the wrong circumstances. It was an equalizer, but San Antonio grabbed a second-half winner. Odds are, though, few will remember the scoreline. Instead, it will be the day that 26,000 showed up in a stadium the rest of the world neglects, to witness another moment that fans will never forget.

“People's entire lives and childhood and memories are built in building," Hodul said. "There's a memory of your entire history by going to these places and that doesn't leave you. That overrides anything else."