Roots and Soul to include soccer fans as owners, become 'Oakland's team more than ever' (2024)

Since 2019, Oakland, Calif., has had two of its major professional sports teams leave the city, and a third is preparing to relocate. The Golden State Warriors first moved to San Francisco. The Oakland Raiders then moved to Las Vegas, and the Oakland A’s have announced plans to do the same.

The Oakland Roots and Soul soccer clubs never intended to be the last teams standing in “The Town,” but they remain committed to their founding purpose of putting “Oakland first always” — even with other teams starting new chapters.

Now, the Roots and Soul are pulling their local community even closer by inviting it to join the club’s owner’s circle.On Sept. 13, the Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club will launch a community investment round, with the goal of raising at least $2 million and further strengthening the bond with their fans. Participants in the round will hold equity in the organization, so if the club continues to grow, the investment would grow along with it.

“It’s about giving people access and ability to participate in our collective growth as a community and as a sports team,” said Edreece Arghandiwal, the club’s co-founder and chief marketing officer. “And, who knows? It could create generational wealth for people that are wanting to invest in this and see it become one of the biggest clubs in the world.

“Being at the helm of a professional sports team in Oakland is a privilege, and we try to live up to that responsibility every single day. When these teams left, we said we have to double down and become Oakland’s team more than ever.”

Though community ownership of sports teams is relatively common in Europe, it is still rare in the United States. Before 2016, it was mostly limited to nonprofits — like the Green Bay Packers — whose shares cannot appreciate in value, nor be sold. Federal legislation passed in 2016 changed U.S. investing rules regarding crowdfunding, allowing anyone, regardless of their net worth, to invest in private companies, for a minimum of $100.

Roots and Soul co-founder and chief purpose officer Mike Geddes hails from England and once covered soccer for the BBC. He’s seen up close what community ownership can mean both to the health of a sports organization and the ethos of the community.

“If you don’t want the teams to become detached from the communities that they represent, those communities need to have some stake in that (team),” he said.

It has been a rapid climb in relevancy for the club, which played its first match in 2019 when the Roots debuted in the National Independent Soccer Association and now boasts a men’s team (Roots) in the USL Championship, a women’s pre-professional USL W team (Soul) scheduled to move into the USL Super League in 2025, and a successful local soccer development program (Project 51O). They are negotiating with the City of Oakland and Alameda County to build a privately financed 10,000-capacity modular stadium in Oakland with plans to open in March 2025. Arghandiwal says the club has a $78 million valuation.

If they reach their $2 million goal, it will be the largest community investment round in U.S. sports history. There are eight different tiers of investment, ranging from the smallest, with an entry point of $100, to the largest, which can be $25,000 or more. In addition to the equity stake, each tier comes with its own set of perks.

A community ownership stake is a delivery on a promise club leadership made to fans early on. Jorge Leon is president of the Oakland 68s, a fan supporter club for the Roots and Soul, as well as the A’s. He also sits on the Roots and Soul’s community advisory council. Leon said from the moment the club launched, the 68s asked when fans would have an opportunity to own a stake in it.

Given what has transpired with the A’s relocation effort, Leon believes community ownership shows a commitment to keep the teams tied to Oakland.

Roots and Soul president Lindsay Barenz hopes that this investment round can eventually serve as a model for other communities to ensure their teams stay put.

“Oakland is not the only community that has seen professional sports teams leave, and we see how that tears at the fabric of the community and what a loss it is,” she said. “We really hope that this is us putting a stake in the ground here in Oakland and a true demonstration of our commitment to the community.”

Participants in the community investment round will join an investor group of more than 70 — a group that already includes former NFL star Marshawn Lynch and rapper G-Eazy, both Oakland natives. Lynch became an investor in 2021; G-Eazy followed the next year.

The relationships with Lynch and G-Eazy developed organically through connections both had with the club’s founders.

“Oakland is a big city in that it’s recognized worldwide, but it’s a small town in that everyone knows each other,” Arghandiwal said. He added it wasn’t hard to convince either of them to invest because of their love of the city. “They care about Oakland so much because Oakland provided them with the pathway to their success. When they see a sports club that’s purpose-oriented but also is cool and aligned with their brand and identity, it becomes a no-brainer to get involved.”

"I had some great leaders early on in my career…That put me in a position of learning. It showed me something that money can't buy and that was loyalty." -Marshawn Lynch

Peep the full interview of Oakland's own and Roots owner, @MoneyLynch, at @thepivot.#OaklandFirstAlways pic.twitter.com/lUYktGhrEB

— Oakland Roots (@oaklandrootssc) March 5, 2022

Their “Oakland first always” motto is built into the fabric of everything the organization undertakes, from the product on the pitch, to its charitable work, to its sponsors, to its development program.

“Oakland Roots and Soul have been hella good examples of ‘Town Bidness,’ Lynch said via release from the organization. “They’ve been in the streets puttin’ in work. … Getting behind these teams is not just about them; it’s about every sport team, from the little ones at the park, to high school, college teams and so on. It gives our youth something to look up to and be proud of.”

The investment round will not only net investors equity but also a seat at the table in board meetings. The investors will be represented on the club’s cap table by a special purpose vehicle, which will be led by Dr. Akilah Cadet, an Oakland native and CEO of Change Cadet, a DEI consulting firm. When the board makes decisions, Cadet will be the community investors’ voting representative. The organization plans to provide all participants with detailed corporate information.

“There will be regular communications where we share news — good and bad — about the organization, plus an annual report, which will share financial information that is, to my knowledge, really never been shared with a community of a professional sports team in the United States on this level,” Barenz said.

The organization’s willingness to be transparent and to build through conversations with the community has allowed it to flourish, Leon said.

“To start something, it has to start with genuine, authentic people that really actually care and want to be involved within the community,” he said. “That’s how it started at first. And that’s how you get people more involved and people wanting to be more a part of it.”

More than just a sports club, the Roots and Soul have become a marketing success. The Roots were named the “Coolest team” by soccer magazine FourFourTwo and its game-day culture was featured in Hypebeast. Their mosaic crest has popped up in music videos and has been worn by several celebrities, including actor Tom Holland, who recently visited Oakland with actor Zendaya, an Oakland native. Lynch, NBA stars Damian Lillard and Kevon Looney, and frontman Billie Joe Armstrong of rock band Green Day are among the celebrities who have worn Roots and Soul gear.

Geddes said the brand developed from “us doing a lot of listening to people and really ensuring that we authentically showed up in the community and understood: What do the people of Oakland want? And what would they be proud to have representing them? So, by the time that it appeared in the real world, people looked at it and said, ‘Yeah, that’s it. That’s the thing that we’ve been waiting for.'”

The club guards its brand closely, Arghandiwal said, because it’s important that it’s “contributing to the future happiness, equity and equality in the city in a positive way, and we’re contributing to the positive narrative (about Oakland) that goes out to the real world.” He said everything from the partnered sponsors to the nonprofit organizations they support are chosen with intention.

The club handles all of its marketing in-house and relies heavily on word of mouth rather than paid advertising. According to Arghandiwal, the club spends less on marketing than most USL teams but ranks second in the league in merchandise sales.

“We wanted our crest, both for Oakland Roots and Oakland Soul, to be synonymous with the identity of the city,” Arghandiwal said. “At some point in time, I’d love to see the entire city painted mosaic, and have it be colorful, and have people wearing the merchandise in connection with Oakland.”

The Roots and Soul describe themselves as a purpose-driven sports club and that purpose, Geddes said, is to “harness the magic of Oakland and the power of sports as a force for social good.”

As chief purpose officer, Geddes oversees efforts to ensure every aspect of the organization is adhering to its core values. The Roots and Soul are believed to be the only U.S. sports organization to employ a CPO. Their community work includes support of six local nonprofits — termed “Purpose Partners” — to aid Oakland’s underserved youth. They also have established a foundation to “support the causes at the intersection of race and gender justice in sports in Oakland.” The Roots are the first U.S. soccer team to join Common Goal, an organization led by soccer players and coaches who pledge 1 percent of their salaries to fight social inequality.

The team on the field also is a reflection of the club’s values, Barenz said. There is a commitment to finding and developing local talent. All three parts of the club — Roots, Soul and Project 51O — assign a localness score as part of their evaluation of potential additions. Players who are from or live in or near Oakland will have a higher score than ones who live further out from the city.

“It’s critical to us that our crowds see a team that they identify with, that they see a team that looks like Oakland and plays in the way that Oakland wants,” Geddes said. “There’s a real science behind it, and it requires constant work and intentionality.”

Geddes has experience with purpose-driven soccer clubs, having previously worked for Kick4Life F.C., a football club in the African nation of Lesotho. He also spent many years in the nonprofit space but believes that with the global popularity of soccer, there is the potential to leverage the sport to further social good.

Barenz also brings a unique background to the organization. One of the few female presidents in U.S. sports, Barenz began her career as a lawyer, spent time working in politics and eventually made the move into sports with a job with Real Salt Lake and the Utah Royals FC. She said her work with the Roots and Soul has been incredibly rewarding.

“It is an organization that is truly purpose-driven, and I don’t spend any time during the day questioning whether we’re trying to do the right thing,” she said. “I know we’re trying to make decisions that are aligned with our purpose and our values, and that’s just an incredible feeling.”

As the Roots and Soul enter a new phase they hope will include 1,000 new investors and a new stadium, their optimism for the future is high.

“Oakland loves soccer. They’re the best sports fans in the world, and they will reward your loyalty with their loyalty,” Barenz said. “There’s a hunger for sports in Oakland, given the number of teams that we’ve lost, and there’s just a lot of enthusiasm for the Roots and Soul.”

(All photos courtesy of the Oakland Roots and Soul SC)