The Oakland Roots FC soccer team’s ownership is done with the Oakland Coliseum.
The city of Oakland could be losing another professional sports franchise. The United Soccer League’s low-level Oakland Roots SC franchise ownership is done with the Oakland Coliseum. The ownership is looking to build a new stadium somewhere, possibly Oakland. Roots’ ownership decided the 60-year-old venue is not a viable place. In 2023, Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher thought the smaller market Las Vegas was a much better bet for financial success than the San Francisco Bay Area market which includes Silicon Valley tech companies. Fisher decided the Coliseum wasn’t not viable for his business and could not build a new Oakland venue. Fisher left in 2024. National Football League Oakland Raiders franchise owner Mark Davis departed the Oakland Coliseum in 2020. The National Basketball Association’s Golden State Warriors’ ownership moved to San Francisco in 2019.
Mark Davis had no interest in building a football stadium on Oakland’s terms. Oakland’s starting position was well we can build a new facility but you, Mark Davis, had to pay down debt on the existing stadium. Davis also wanted Major League Baseball’s Athletics business evicted from the Oakland Coliseum and refused to pay the 1995 Coliseum renovation debt. Davis’s business moved operations to Nevada into a costly new stadium with about $750 million of the tab picked up by Nevada taxpayers. At the time, it was the largest taxpayers hand out for a sports venue in American history. The Warriors ownership was able to acquire land in San Francisco and decided San Francisco would be more lucrative than Oakland. The National Hockey League’s Oakland Seals franchise left the Bay Area for Cleveland in 1976 as the team never generated much revenue and Seals’ ownership could not get a San Francisco arena built. The Oakland Coliseum is now an empty white elephant.
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