{"id":5977,"date":"2026-08-01T05:06:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T05:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5977"},"modified":"2026-08-01T05:06:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T05:06:40","slug":"oakland-roots-wont-be-kicked-out-of-coliseum-yet-despite-owing-1-4-million-in-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5977","title":{"rendered":"Oakland Roots won’t be kicked out of Coliseum — yet — despite owing $1.4 million in rent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OAKLAND \u2014 Coliseum officials will not immediately red-card Oakland Roots SC over $1.4 million in unpaid rent owed by the popular men\u2019s soccer franchise after the team presented no firm repayment plan Friday.<\/p>\n

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The franchise, one of Oakland\u2019s few remaining professional sports teams, will play Saturday\u2019s home game as scheduled on the stadium field after paying its fees, roughly $173,000 for a match, in advance.<\/p>\n

While they agreed Friday to seek a resolution without taking a formal vote, some officials who oversee the Coliseum\u2019s affairs accused the Roots of lacking urgency and accountability in their efforts to clear the outstanding debt.<\/p>\n

With no payment plan for the debt and no home stadium secured for next season, the Roots face mounting uncertainty over where \u2014 and under what financial conditions \u2014 they can continue playing in Oakland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not blindsided \u2014 I was duped,\u201d said Henry Gardner, the executive director of a body appointed by the city and Alameda County to oversee the stadium-and-arena property, at Friday\u2019s meeting about his dealings with the Roots.<\/p>\n

The missing payments accumulated over several games, with the Roots paying only secondary fees but not their base rate of $138,000.<\/p>\n

Gardner described various efforts by the Coliseum body \u2014 formally called the Joint Powers Authority \u2014 to discuss the Roots\u2019 outstanding debt, accusing team officials of ducking those communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not sit still for this nonsense!\u201d Gardner responded when the Roots\u2019 team president, Lindsay Barenz, denied his characterization of events and insisted franchise executives had \u201crepeatedly\u201d sought a meeting.<\/p>\n

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Their uncomfortable standoff recalled Oakland\u2019s previous clashes with much-deeper-pocketed major sports franchises, including the Raiders, A\u2019s and Warriors, all of which have departed the Coliseum complex in the past decade for new homes.<\/p>\n

The Roots, a second-division franchise founded in 2018, have been on a similar quest to nail down long-term digs in Oakland. In just the past four years, the team has been a tenant of Laney College, Cal State East Bay in Hayward and now the Coliseum.<\/p>\n

Although its merchandise has become a popular fashion choice among Oakland residents, the team has struggled to draw crowds to the aging 70,000-seat stadium.<\/p>\n

In a statement Thursday, Roots representatives partly blamed revenue shortages this season on having ceded all parking revenue and a portion of ticket sales to the joint authority in the team\u2019s last-minute lease agreement, among other unfavorable costs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve tried everything to make it work, but the economics are insurmountable,\u201d Barenz told the authority Friday.<\/p>\n

Barenz said the team remained \u201cdeeply committed to the East Bay,\u201d noting the team invested $700,000 to convert the former A\u2019s baseball field to a soccer pitch.<\/p>\n

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As a result, said Roots cofounder and chief marketing officer Edreece Arghandiwal, the Coliseum was able to host a lucrative Mexico-Japan international friendly last summer on the stadium grounds, along with two annual domestic cricket events.<\/p>\n

But authority commissioners pointed team leaders back to the outstanding debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need some guarantees on this, so we are not left holding the bag,\u201d said Commissioner Kevin Jenkins, the president of the Oakland City Council, who asked to \u201chear some accountability \u2014 sometimes that\u2019s \u2018I messed up,\u2019 as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ken Houston, a fellow commissioner and Oakland council member, expressed disappointment that the situation had grown so dire before he became aware of it.<\/p>\n

He floated the idea of the Roots offering their name and branding as collateral on the debt, likening the transaction to how business is done at a pawn shop.<\/p>\n

But the Roots found support from three other commissioners \u2014 Alameda County supervisors Nate Miley and David Haubert, plus Rev. Jacqueline Thompson \u2014 who agreed the team matters too much to Oakland\u2019s sports scene to be kicked to the curb.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they don\u2019t play, then they can\u2019t pay,\u201d Haubert said, calling for the debt to be frozen until the team seeks a payment plan.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how negotiations play out between the Roots and the Coliseum\u2019s management company, Legends Global, which formally owns the team\u2019s lease but oversees only daily operations.<\/p>\n

An earlier proposal by Barenz for the franchise to simply pay in advance for its remaining home games while attracting unknown investments was flatly rejected by Legends officials.<\/p>\n

With the Roots intent on leaving the Coliseum after this season, executives must also secure another venue. The team has discussed preliminary stadium plans at either the team\u2019s practice facility in Alameda or the waterfront Howard Terminal property in West Oakland.<\/p>\n

Gardner, in an interview before Friday\u2019s meeting, appeared unmoved by the threat of the franchise being endangered by its precarious financial state.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven a nonprofit would be expected to pay rent at the Coliseum,\u201d he said. \u201cI do not run a rescue unit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The soccer team will play Saturday as normal, but Coliseum officials worry they will be “left holding the bag.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nOakland Roots won’t be kicked out of Coliseum — yet — despite owing $1.4 million in rent - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5977\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oakland Roots won’t be kicked out of Coliseum — yet — despite owing $1.4 million in rent - 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