OAKLAND — After sitting unsold and unwanted for months, the former Raiders training facility — a prime piece of East Bay real estate — has a buyer who appears to want to keep it a home for sports, on both a local and global scale.The 16-acre compound, with multiple turf fields, some offices and a large swath of parking space, has attracted the interest of San Francisco real-estate firm Prologis, which is offering to buy the property for $24 million.
Just under half of that money would go to Oakland, which co-owns with Alameda County the facility at 1150 Harbor Bay Parkway in Alameda, atop the flatland that leads to the scenic ocean harbor.
It would be a much-needed financial boost for a city dealing with a budget deficit of historic proportions. But the larger impact would be to the property’s current tenant and one of Oakland’s fastest-growing cultural institutions: the men’s soccer franchise Oakland Roots SC.
Should city and county officials approve the purchase this month, Prologis intends to continue leasing the compound to both the Roots and its new companion women’s team, the Oakland Soul.
The soccer fields may also continue to serve as a training ground for European soccer clubs seeking a warmer region during the winter months, including potentially a role in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, some of which is set to be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
“The World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world, and this use would shine a global spotlight on Oakland and the East Bay,” the report states, before noting that the facility would need significant maintenance, including a $3 million upgrade to the roof of the building that once served as the Raiders headquarters.
Oakland Roots Soccer Club President Lindsay Barenz at their training facility, which was the same for the Oakland Raiders in Alameda, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The Roots, meanwhile, have been striving to remain in the city whose tree insignia inspired the franchise’s name and branding, as well as its guiding ethos — to be rooted in Oakland amid the departure of other sports franchises. But the task has proven difficult.
Team officials had anticipated that they might be booted from the property when the city and county decided to sell, especially if the new owner was more interested in, say, building new housing on the property rather than hosting sports franchises there.
Ahead of key dates this month, including a City Council vote next Tuesday, Roots officials have declined to comment on the pending sale.
The Raiders facility is where the Roots practice, but it will play home games during the entire 2024 season at Cal State East Bay in Hayward — the second season at the soccer field there, after the team ditched Laney College over a turf issue.
The Roots’ goal is to play the following season in a modular stadium built on the parking lot of the Coliseum complex, plus a longer-term stadium in a large adjacent space, the Malibu Lot.
Ongoing negotiations between the Roots and Coliseum officials over a stadium at the giant East Oakland property have mainly centered around scheduling games on nights when A’s baseball — perhaps in its final season — isn’t already using the property.
The team’s temporary agreement with the Coliseum would constitute a “special event,” which would require the team to be there for no more than 60 days in 2025 — a stopgap measure while the team tackles the complicated task of finding a semi-permanent home.
“I’m hoping we are nearing the end,” said Henry Gardner, the head of the Joint Powers Authority, which oversees the Coliseum site on behalf of the city and county.
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