"We are here to build a community asset," Edreece Arghandiwal, the Roots' co-founder and chief marketing officer, told me recently. Thank you for supporting The Oaklandside and being a part of our community. Credit: Torrey Hart. McInerney would score a first half perfect hat trick in a match that would eventually end up in a 33 draw. The Roots unusually emphatic prioritization of public service. Oakland Roots View events: 15/02/23: CLF: Oakland Roots - Central Valley Fuego 26/02/23: CLF: Monterey Bay 02 : 00: Oakland Roots 01/03/23: CLF: Oakland Roots - Sacramento Republic 11/03/23: USC: San Antonio - Oakland Roots Whether on the pitch, in the stands, or within the community, Oakland Roots will . [29] This was followed by the early December signings of Oakland raised Max Ornstil and re-signings of Yohannes Harish and Tarn Weir, as well as many others. Why is Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas proud the Roots are based in her district? On May 24, 2022, Oakland Roots SC launched their women's team, Oakland Soul. What can we do?. And what it had to look like, Arghandiwal said, was an organization committed earnestly to being about the Town in an authentic way., We believed, Arghandiwal told me, That as long as we showed the community real authentic love, they would love us back.. Please try again later. PHX 3-0 OAK (5/8) LA 3-0 OAK (7/25) 2020-21. Founded in 2009 by Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora as a 100% sustainable urban mushroom farm, BTTR has transformed into a company focused on bringing sustainable . Oakland Roots Sports Club is tackling climate change head-on becoming carbon-neutral as one of the first steps on its journey to sustainability. The club had just one win through their first 13 games, leaving the team with less than 1% chance to make the playoffs according to fivethirtyeight. Next came the task of building a brand. Led by the concatenation of supporters groups who cram themselves sardine-like into the bleachers southern endwhich groups go individually by the names of La Brigada Del Pueblo, the Homegrown Hooligans, the Roots Radicals, and the Oakland 68s, though they refer to themselves collectively as The Functionthe crowd does not stop singing, chanting, waving flags, or banging on drums all game long. 15.9K Followers. After submitting your information, you will receive an email. Oakland Roots is a purpose-driven mens soccer team that seeks to harness the magic of Oakland and the power of sports as a social force for good. Your donation makes this and all our other local reporting possible. They were a driving force to make that happen., Thats just the beginning. Also, a 2023 Calendar for major soccer competitions is included. It was the championship match of the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA), a Division III league, where the Roots had played their first season. In case you havent been, heres what a Roots game is like. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News . Part three of this series publishes next week. Barenz came to her queer identity later in life. NFL. The teams and experiences who buoyed that reputationthe Raiders and the Black Hole; the Warriors and Roar-acle Arenawere internationally recognizable institutions. The Oakland Roots soccer club was born, in earnest, in the summer of 2016, when Edreece Arghandiwal, a marketing director and entrepreneurial creative type who'd worked on projects for brands such as Apple and set designer Susan Linss, met Benno Nagel, a veteran soccer player and coach who'd previously worked for clubs in Croatia and the Netherlands. The need was for a team that the community could care about, Geddes said. Most engage in a certain amount of philanthropic work, too. From there, Oakland went on to pick up 34 points in 19 games, earning the final Pacific Division playoff spot on the final day of the season following a 10 win over Sporting Kansas City II. Posted: Aug 18, 2022 / 02:49 PM PDT. Youth leagues in America are pay-to-pay, Hodul told me. Arghandiwal told me this during the Roots match against Loudon that Id attended, down on the field behind the visitors goal. Much of the initial excitement, in fact, came from people who werent even aware the shirts, hoodies, and jackets they were buying or sharing on social media were affiliated with an upstart soccer club. [50] The team pledged to donate one percent of the team's payroll and one percent of all future ticket revenue to help address social inequality. More than anything, however, its a product of what the Roots have built and set out to accomplish off the pitch. The opportunity right now in women's sports is enormous and I encourage more women to join us in the investor group and help us create more opportunities for girls to . Such devotion also exemplifiesin fleshy microcosm, perhapsthe poignancy of the impression the Roots have made on Oakland thus far. This would be the Oakland Roots, The Towns upstart Division II mens soccer club, which played its first game in Oakland in 2019, and which aspires to the ideal of professional sports less as a private enterprise than as a kind of public service: the clubs stated purpose, which can be found on their website and social media pagesand which employees repeat like an incantationis, To harness the magic of Oakland and the power of sport as a force for social good.. Mike Geddes, the Oakland Roots' chief purpose officer (left), and co-founder and chief marketing officer Edreece Arghandiwal inside the Roots training facility and headquarters. Theyve risen to a level of cultural and communal prominence rare for its sport and remarkable for its rapidity. Weekend Flower and Vape Deals. [15], The Roots opened their second season at home once again in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,603. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News . The club created the Oakland Roots Justice Fund is a charitable fund to support racial and gender justice. Though flourishing at a grassroots level, the only professional club that had managed to stick around for more than a handful of years was the San Jose Earthquakesand they were owned by the famously frugal and patently uninspiring John Fisher. Beyond serving Oakland as a community asset, the club wants to leave a legacy and one day fill the void left in Oakland by the teams that have all but abandoned it. The owners were just there to put more profit in their pocket, he said. Supporters Oakland Roots has five main supporters groups; Roots Radicals, La Brigada Del Pueblo, Oakland 68s . 99% of the time, the equipment and stuff is worth very little, Hsu said. Arghandiwal and Nagel saw an opportunity to build an organization that could meet the growing demand. We became passionate about building something that was purpose and impact driven in a city that has through its history been at the forefront of political activism and arts and diversity and culture, Arghandiwal told me. Please try again later. Fully entitled corner DOUBLE LOT in an Opportunity Zone in the bustling Bancroft corr. [17], On April 27, 2020, following an extended stoppage of play due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NISA announced the cancellation of the 2020 spring season. They support Soccer Without Borders, which provides youth-development programs for under-served youth all across the country, Joanne da Luzs organization My Yute Soccer, and outfits unaffiliated with athletics, such as Chapter 510, a youth writing, bookmaking & publishing center. In Oakland of late, fans have been subjected almost exclusively to this latter kind of experience. Recently, they extended their lease through 2023. To receive notifications via email, enter your email address and select at least one subscription below. Several times this year, in a stadium designed to hold twelve times fewer fans, the Roots have even outdrawn the As. Indeed, some European clubs, such as those operating in Germany, remain publicly owned institutions, which fans are invited not only to root for, but to exert a degree of influence over, as they might the local library. Your donation goes beyond supporting our journalism. The Roots are a three-year-old lower-division soccer club. Sporting Goods Companies With Fewer Than 100 Employees . T. Bailey. They donate training expertise and equipment to the Oakland Parks and Rec Departments Town Camp Program. In fact, its the work they do that has won the club most of the praise and good press it has received. The club stated the fund would support new and existing initiatives by the Roots and community partners to "support causes at the intersection of racial and gender justice. 'Oakland Soul,' will be part of USL W-League in 2023. Jun 2006 - Mar 20136 years 10 months. an investor bought it for $157,000. The key, as I would learn the next day, when I connected with Arghandiwal for an extended conversation on Zoom, was the fusion of he and Nagels love for Oakland with their belief in the potential of sports to do good. You walk around, sampling local beer, watching parents struggle and ultimately fail to corral kids screaming joyously about in Roots scarves and kits, all while young people representing damn close to every one of Oaklands various cultural, economic, and denominational pockets mingle, drink, eat, and chat. My job is to work across every single department in the organization, whether its our technical team or our marketing team, or our operations team, and help them think about how that purpose shows up in every decision they make.. I believe I harbor a baseball players subconscious distrust of not being able to use your hands. The Roots lost 2-1, but played valiantly. Their absence has left the Oakland sports scene on life support. Initially in 2017, the USL approved a bid from real estate developer Mark Hall to bring a soccer team to Concord, California instead of Oakland. [47] Underground rappers Murs and The Grouch performed prior to the team's March 7, 2020 match against Michigan Stars FC.[48]. Oakland Boys Power Roots to First Home VictoryRoots emerged victorious for their first home win of the 2021 season in front of a packed house at their altern. If you value what you get from The Oaklandside, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can continue doing the local reporting that matters to you. [57] They eventually would forgo the season and start play in 2022. Oakland Roots Soccer Club President Lindsay Barenz at their training facility, which was the same for the Oakland Raiders in Alameda, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. Their altruistic, collectivist conception of what pro sports can be has been rejected hereparticularly in the four major American sports: baseball, football, basketball, and hockeybut its embraced elsewhere. Back to the Roots Investors (40) Investor Name Investor Type Holding Investor Since Participating Rounds Contact Info; Consumer Ventures: Venture Capital: Minority: 000 0000: . A 2017 photo of the . For several hours they fielded questions they didnt necessarily have answers to: where are you going to play? [36], Oakland upset the Mountain Division Champions El Paso Locomotive in the first round of the playoffs, breaking a 470-day home unbeaten run by the Texas side. To find out, the group assembled a community advisory board, composed of a dozen or so Oakland residents whod been working on behalf of the Town for many years. I've been coming to Mio since late 2013, but I was hesistent to make an appointment this year in Feb after an orangey ombre balayage I received in 2014. How Oaklands hometown soccer team overcame a slow start and internal strife to build a team with purpose. [5][6] This was followed by the signing of several higher profile players as the club built out its inaugural rosters. (Ahead of each home game, the Roots close off two blocks of East 10th Streetthe road that abuts the football stadium at Laneyand fill it with local food trucks, alcohol vendors, graffiti artists, and music.) Track . A donation to The Oaklandside goes beyond the newsroom. ALAMEDA, Calif. (KRON) - The Oakland Roots soccer team is ready to compete for a USL Championship title in 2022 under new Head Coach Juan Guerra. Why is it worth caring about a lower-division soccer club like the Roots? Oakland Roots SC will play the next match against San Antonio FC on Mar 12, 2023, 1:30:00 AM UTC in USL Championship. Thank you. F1. Today the Roots participate in a dizzying array of philanthropic initiatives and partner with a large and diverse collection of nonprofit organizations. He said the Roots were welcome to submit a bid, but the club has yet to do so. It extends beyond the Laney College bleachers or even the bars where Roots supporters watch away gamesat least, that is, when theyre not traveling en masse to those away games. The club was formed in 2018 by a group of Oakland natives, . Professional soccer team the Oakland Roots launched in 2018 with the realization that a new team couldn't just "park a bus" in the city, co-founder Edreece Arghandiwal told Yahoo Sports last . We amplify community voices, share the power of real information, and investigate systems, not just symptoms. Professional sports teams have used and abandoned Oakland. The move comes after the Roots acquired USL Championship rights from developer Mark Hall, who had planned an 18,000 seat stadium as part of a larger mixed-use development. Theres something special were building here.. Specialties: We provide comprehensive primary care and behavioral health services to all members of our community. The club was founded with the purpose of creating positive social change in the .