Alameda welcomes the Oakland Roots and Soul to set up a soccer stadium there

After eight seasons and four venues, the Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club have secured a home in Alameda for the next three to five seasons. 

The Alameda Planning Board voted unanimously Monday to approve the soccer teams’ use permit, allowing them to turn their headquarters and training facility on Harbor Bay Parkway into a temporary stadium for the 2027 season. Now the club can proceed with plans approved by City Council to install modular stands that can seat about 8,000 fans, add stadium lighting and improve parking and other amenities.

The Roots and Soul will be able to host soccer matches and community events on an interim basis for up to five years at the Harbor Parkway site, which is adjacent to Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport. The teams have played at various East Bay venues: Laney College, Cal State East Bay, Merritt College and the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. 

The Roots have been searching for a permanent home since joining the USL Championship league eight years ago. Soul played their first match in 2023 in the USL W league, a pre-professional amateur women’s soccer league designed for college athletes and aspiring professionals. In the East Bay, the existing facilities are not suitable, said Lindsay Barenz, president of the Oakland Roots and Soul SC. 

“We played a lot of venues that didn’t technically work for soccer for our games,” she said. 

Every time they played at Laney College, Barenz said the club had to roll out a soccer pitch on the football field and pick it back up at the end, costing time and money. 

Several members of the public spoke in favor of the Harbor Parkway plan at the Alameda Planning Board meeting. Stephen Zimmerman said it’s great to see a local sports team “committed to community.” He believes the Roots bring a “unique entertainment experience for families,” something he looks forward to in Alameda.

Barnez said music, art, culture, and family are prevalent parts of the Roots and Soul game-day experiences. 

“Our purpose is to harness the magic of Oakland and the power of sports as a force for social good,” she said. “And we take that purpose into account in all of our decisions, and it includes what game days are like.”

The biggest concerns residents raised were about noise, increased traffic and parking. One resident who has lived near the Harbor Bay Parkway facility for 40 years recalled that when the Oakland Raiders trained there, he could regularly hear the whistles coming from the field. 

Another resident said she is concerned about traffic flow because of the limited ways to get onto the island. 

Melissa De Boer believes the new stadium will be a positive thing for Alameda and the Harbor Bay shopping center. Others mentioned it will benefit the city’s economic development.

Barenz said the club is “committed to being good neighbors.” She said the stadium speakers will face away from the residential area to minimize noise in nearby neighborhoods. Barenz also said the club plans to set up a hotline for people to reach via email and telephone to address sound issues when they come up.

The board ultimately decided that it will be up to the Roots to figure out how they are going to handle noise and traffic issues.

“The Oakland Roots seem like the right organization to be working with to kind of address all these issues,” Planning Board member Jimmy Ly said. 

If no members of the public or board submit an appeal within 10 days, the project can continue.  

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