Featured image credit: Quintin Soliviev/CC BY 4.0/Edited for size
USL Championship club Oakland Roots has announced plans to play the 2025 season at the Oakland Coliseum, marking its return to the city for the first time since 2022.
The Coliseum currently serves as the home of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics, but the team will depart the stadium at the end of the current season.
The A’s will move to a new Las Vegas ballpark in 2028, and in April it was announced that the team will be playing at Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park from 2025 to 2027.
The arrival of the Oakland Roots in 2025 will ensure that the Coliseum does have a regular tenant, albeit not a major-league one. The Roots have spent the past two seasons at Pioneer Stadium in Hayward, around 18 miles from Oakland.
Prior to that, the team played at the 5,500-capacity Laney College Stadium in Oakland.
The club is continuing to explore plans for an interim stadium at the Malibu Lot adjacent to the Coliseum. If these plans come to fruition, the Roots and the Oakland Soul women’s team would play at the interim stadium for up to 10 seasons, starting from 2026.
According to NBC Bay Area, the Roots have secured a $3m (£2.3m/€2.7m) agreement with the City of Oakland and Alameda County to play 17 home games at the Coliseum in 2025.
Roots president Lindsay Barenz said: “We are honoured to be able to play our 2025 season in such an iconic venue. We’re proud to ensure pro sports stay at the Coliseum next year.”
Oakland Mayor Sheng Tao added: “Roots and Soul radiate Oakland pride in the community and every time they step on the pitch. They are a model franchise and the Town’s global ambassadors to the soccer world.
“I’m excited they have chosen to invest in Oakland and make our city their home. Oakland fans deserve a sports team that is dedicated, energetic and community oriented and I am pleased to support the club with the full force of my administration. The future is Roots and Soul.”
The Coliseum served as the home of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders until 2019, when the team moved to Las Vegas. The stadium has also been used for other sports and music events.
Last week, the A’s sold their share of the Coliseum complex to the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG) for a fee of $125m. It came after the group reached an agreement to acquire the City of Oakland’s share for a minimum of $105m back in May.
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