The Oakland Roots may have lost their season opener, but they brought the Coliseum roaring back to life with a sold-out crowd celebrating the team’s new chapter at the former home of the A’s and Raiders.
Nearly 27,000 people bought tickets to the Saturday-night game — record attendance for the United Soccer League team — that featured a halftime show by Too $hort and ended in a 2-1 loss against San Antonio FC.
The audience included a vocal contingent of Roots supporters who used to watch the team at Laney College and CSU East Bay. There were also plenty of new fans, some of whom told on themselves by cheering for the Texan opponents when they scored the first goal — likely confusing the black San Antonio jerseys with the traditional mosaic pattern of the home team. On Saturday, the Roots donned their alternate white-and-green jerseys, an homage to the Oakland A’s.
The signature sound of drumming from fan group Los Roots resonated throughout the concrete stadium, punctuating the raucous cheers and jeers from the crowd. The wave even made a brief appearance.
“It’s electric,” Los Roots founder Jorge Bejarano said of the vibe. “We’ve seen it before. We’ve seen it for the A’s, and we’ve seen it for the Raiders.”
As he embarks on his fourth season of cheering on the Roots, he wasn’t surprised to see how many people showed up to celebrate their hometown pride.
“I believe in Oakland, first of all, and Oakland has always shown — even when the Raiders have been 0-13 — we still packed this place up,” Bejarano said. “It’s not really only about winning for Oakland, we haven’t had a lot of winning teams, but it’s about the people in Oakland who bring that energy.”
Michael Bautista, a 16-year-old who plays on the MLS Next youth league, knew he couldn’t miss this weekend’s game. He was introduced to the Roots when his uncle volunteered for the team and has come to games regularly with his family ever since.
“I used to go to many Oakland A’s games, Raiders, and Golden State Warriors games, and they all left,” he said. “So we have like no team apart from Oakland Roots. Losing our teams is one thing, but also having a team in the sports which I love and I play personally is really comforting for myself. Oakland, for me it’s home, and being able to share that with others, it’s just a good feeling.”
As a soccer fan, he’s excited to see his favorite sport get more love in the Bay Area.
“Being able to have a team here in the Bay Area gave me the hope I needed when I was younger,” Michael said, “to believe in myself and believe that I can make it into a pro league.”
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Oakland 68s fan group member Michelle Leon said her personal history is inextricably linked to the Coliseum.
“ I could cry if I think too deeply about it, because I met my husband in the bleachers here,” she said. “We had our first kiss here. We have two children that also grew up here. Section 149 over there, I can see it — that’s our second home. … We always joked about this being our church [because] we would come here on Sundays.”
