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Professional soccer coming to Alameda

Professional soccer coming to Alameda
Rendering of Oakland Roots and Soul's proposed temporary stadium in Alameda to host their professional soccer games for up to 8,000 attendees over the coming five years.

As I walked to lunch, the TVs were on in many of Park Street's bars and restaurants for the first day of World Cup competitions. Alameda is currently hosting the Australian Socceroos. And if City of Alameda approves a new application for permits and design review, more soccer will be coming here: Oakland Roots men's soccer club and Oakland Soul women's soccer club are proposing to transform their training facility at the edge of Alameda's Bay Farm into a public venue to host ongoing matches.

A sports venue, in an office park

The site, which formerly served as the Oakland Raiders football training facility, will (if approved) be transformed with bleachers, restroom trailers, and food trucks into a venue to host up to 8,000 attendees.

Per the application that will be discussed by the Alameda Planning Board on June 22:

B. PROPOSED PROJECT: OVERVIEW The Club is proposing adding stands and other facilities on an interim basis that would allow the Club to use its main field to sponsor outdoor assembly activity, comprised of hosting soccer matches and other events. This interim use would be in place to provide a stable, reliable home for Roots & Soul matches until its permanent stadium is constructed at another location. We anticipate this interim use to be in place up to 5 years, through the Club’s 2030 season. These activities, in addition to the Club’s current activities, are anticipated to include: ● Oakland Roots Soccer matches with a fan capacity of up to 8,000, 20 - 24 times per year from March through November; ● Oakland Soul Soccer matches with a fan capacity of up to 1,500, 5 - 7 times per year from May through July; ● Soccer and other sports events with a fan capacity between 500 - 2500, 3 - 5 times per year.

The site is in the Harbor Bay Business Park, and its usage schedule will pair well with the existing businesses, by adding events on weekends and evenings:

These events, and particularly the larger capacity events, would occur primarily on weekends (starting noon to 7pm) and weekday evenings (starting at 5pm or to 7pm), to minimize traffic conflicts with workday traffic in the business park, and occur primarily from March through November. We anticipate most of the events to be sporting events, including youth, high school and college matches

With access by shuttle, bike, and existing auto parking

To handle crowds, the Roots/Soul organization will take advantage of an ample (ahem, excessive) amount of surface parking lots around the Harbor Bay business park, as well as add a shuttle to BART and bike valets:

But no concerts

For residents of Bay Farm who may find the idea of 8,000 fans in bleachers concerning, here's a key sentence:

Concerts or music festivals would not be allowed.

The use permit application is only for sufficient speakers to make announcements to the attendees for sports games, with plans being refined to direct the speakers away from residential areas:

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Alameda's noise ordinance is scheduled for a complete overhaul, triggered by "CEQA" complaints against a downtown beer garden's live music, and this Roots/Soul project may need to rely on that new ordinance. Or it may not. Next to OAK, ambient noise is already high enough that an occasional "GOAL!" likely won't rise above jets taxiing and taking off — the airport providing for the Roots what the potholes now provide for Park Station.

Until a new permanent sports stadium is built in Oakland... someday

This is a blog about Alameda, so I won't try to dissect what happened in between the headlines of:

Still, per City of Alameda's staff report:

The Roots are in ongoing discussions with the Port of Oakland to identify their long term home for their games.

Apparently hope springs eternal for a new professional sports stadium along the Oakland Estuary...

In the meantime, City of Alameda will hopefully decide to complement Harbor Bay's coffee roasting plant, its pharma research firms, and its morning bun factory with a new destination to watch women's and men's professional soccer on evenings and weekends.

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To be specific, the June 22 Planning Board meeting is a public workshop where the board members will be engaging with this application for the first of likely multiple times. The Roots/Soul organization is also underway with its own outreach to neighboring businesses and residential home-owners associations. There will probably be multiple opportunities for interested members of the public to weigh in on this proposed project, before a use permit and design review are approved by the Planning Board.