The professional soccer club announced plans to depart the East Bay stadium at the end of the 2026 season.
San Antonio FC goalie Richard Sánchez leaps over Oakland Roots forward Peter Wilson (9) at the Oakland Coliseum on March 22, 2025, in Oakland, California. This was the first Roots game played in the storied stadium. (David M. Barreda/KQED)
“It’s [a feeling] of gratitude and hope and excitement about what’s to come,” she continued.
The Oakland Roots, a men’s USL Championship team, played home games at the Oakland Coliseum during the 2025 season and plans to host seven more matches at the venue this fall.
Barenz said that hosting games at the iconic venue, which drew 26,000 fans to their season opener last year, has been a highlight for the club, but that limitations in their access and control over the space make it unsustainable as a long-term home.
As it stands, the Roots’ relationship with the Coliseum requires the club to move out of the venue between matches and gives them little say over amenities like parking, concessions and security.
The Roots have also had to play some home matches at Oakland’s Merritt College — the home field of their sister club, the USL Super League Oakland Soul — while the Coliseum hosts other events, like the Major League Cricket playoffs kicking off this week.
“We want to make sure that from beginning to end that we can control our game days and make sure that they are fun and exciting for our community,” Barenz said.
In the short term, Barenz said the Roots and Soul are considering multiple options for the 2027 season, including installing bleachers at their Alameda training site or building a pop-up field in the parking lot of the Coliseum.
The Roots abandoned a plan to construct a temporary stadium in the Coliseum’s adjacent Malibu lot last year, saying at the time that they hoped to remain in the site’s existing stadium as they worked to build a dedicated facility.
The club has been pursuing a permanent home since its inaugural season in 2019, when it hosted home matches at nearby Laney College. In 2023, the Roots moved to Cal State East Bay’s Hayward campus, where they played until the move to the Coliseum last year.
For years, the Roots have been eyeing Howard Terminal, a former shipping container terminal owned by the Port of Oakland, for a waterfront stadium, and said it’s working to secure an exclusive negotiating agreement with the port to create a “world-class” waterfront venue there.
It’s also exploring the potential to build a stadium at the Coliseum site, though that option is likely complicated by the now yearslong negotiations between stakeholders and the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, the development group in the process of purchasing the property.
Though the Roots’ departure could mean the end of Oakland sports at the Coliseum for now, AASEG has said it’s open to hosting athletic teams in the future.
Barenz said she hopes Oaklanders will come out to one of the team’s final seven games in the stadium, beginning July 25 against the Sacramento Republic FC.
“I think it is possible these will be the last sporting event at the building of the Coliseum,” she said. “We wanted to make sure that we gave our fans plenty of notice … so they would have lots of opportunity to come out and celebrate our games there and bid farewell to that storied venue.”
KQED’s Nina Thorsen contributed to this report.
