Oakland Roots Sports Club on Tuesday announced the team has reached a deal to use the former Raiders headquarters and training facility on Bay Farm Island in Alameda.
The license agreement with the city of Oakland and Alameda County, which co-own the property, gives the soccer club access to the facility for its 2022 season, according to the soccer club’s announcement.
“This is an incredible next step in the growth of this club,” Roots Technical Director Jordan Ferrell said in a statement.
Formed in 2018, the Oakland Roots have played the majority of their home games at Laney College’s football stadium. In 2020, the team moved up to the second-division USL Championship league, and reached the Pacific Division playoffs this past season.
“The club has come a long way since its founding just over two years ago,” Ferrell said. “The support has leveled up, the recognition has leveled up and the play on the field has leveled up. One of the next steps to our process is a facility for training that allows us to level up the performance environment our staff and team work in on a daily basis. We now have that facility right in our backyard.”
The training facility located at 1150 Harbor Bay Parkway was built when the Raiders returned to Oakland from Los Angeles in 1995. Under the license agreement with the Raiders, if the Raiders chose to leave Oakland, the team had the option of using the facility for up to 36 months.
But Raiders executives turned over the keys shortly after the team departed for Las Vegas in 2020. It has sat empty since then.
It’s unclear if the Roots could keep using the training facility beyond 2022. The city and county previously announced plans to sell the property. As a first step, and to comply with the state’s Surplus Land act, the city issued a “notice of availability” to notify governmental agencies and affordable housing developers of the property. A city spokesperson told The Oaklandside in September that they received two potential offers that were later rescinded.
“We have since sent all the corresponding NOA documentation to the State for their review and are currently waiting for their concurrence,” City spokesperson Karen Boyd said in September. “Once the process is deemed complete by the state, we will go through the process of marketing the site for eventual sale of the property.”
