Oakland Roots want to be a world-class soccer team. Can the city support it?

OAKLAND — With a raucous and devoted fanbase, a professional soccer team known as the Roots has emerged as a new sports phenomenon in Oakland and a rare source of pride in a city that could be on the brink of losing its last major sports franchise.

Now, amid the afterglow of what’s being called the World Cup’s greatest final, the team is looking to put down more solid roots in Oakland.

Just two years after forming, Oakland Roots SC — short for Soccer Club — have been selling out their games at Laney College’s 5,500-seat football stadium. A companion women’s team, the Oakland Soul, is set to debut next year.

But tough questions lie ahead for the Roots, with team management committed to remaining in Oakland and determined to build a temporary 10,000-seat stadium — and then a permanent facility — for when their lease at Laney College expires in 2024.

While the Roots have been greeted enthusiastically by fans who watched the Warriors and Raiders leave — and the A’s inch toward Las Vegas — the realities of Oakland real estate could pose problems for a team with big dreams of being a major sports brand.

Two sites have emerged as contenders, both with interesting pro-con lists: One is a parking lot at the Oakland Coliseum complex, and the other is 10 miles away, on unused land at the former naval air base at Alameda Point.

The interim stadium —  a structure that could be easily dismantled if circumstances suddenly change — would host the team for the next decade as it seeks a permanent home that’s nearly double the size, team President Lindsey Barenz said in an interview. But that’s a long way off, considering the typical lifespan of startup sports leagues like USL Championship — the professional division in which the Roots compete one level below Major League Soccer, which includes the San Jose Earthquakes.

“We undertook a survey for every patch of grass in Oakland to find a temporary home,” Barenz said. “There’s not an inch of land in the city that we haven’t examined.”

At the Coliseum complex, a triangular concrete structure known as the Malibu Lot would provide enough space to house the soccer stadium, concourse and concession vendors — a stone’s throw from Oakland Arena and the Coliseum, the dilapidated, long-time home of A’s baseball.

The property, in East Oakland, has been shrouded in all sorts of negativity as the A’s clamor to ditch it for a waterfront development to the west, near Jack London Square. A’s supporters liken the Coliseum area to a concrete jungle bereft of major businesses or things to do.

Barenz, though, believes the area is ripe for revitalization, especially given its accessibility from BART, the airport and Interstate 880. The city and Alameda County jointly own the Coliseum property, though the A’s are in the process of acquiring the county’s half to redevelop it for uses other than baseball.

Brien Dixon of the African-American Sports and Entertainment Group, which is working to bring a WNBA team to Oakland, believes the Coliseum site could one day be a major hub of sports and entertainment.

“At the end of the day, you just need the right investors and enough money to make it happen,” said Dixon, whose group has also sought to form a lower-division soccer franchise in Oakland named The Town FC.

Ultimately, the Coliseum property’s future hinges greatly on what becomes of the A’s long-anticipated development deal in West Oakland. Free from all that drama is the former naval base at Alameda Point, which Barenz lauded for its “incredible views” of downtown Oakland and the city’s port.

But there are glaringly few options for public transit riders to access the 1,500 acres of land there. That could pose challenges for the Roots, which publicly have promised to be an environmentally sustainable sports attraction.

Another obvious, inescapable obstacle: the shuttered naval air base is in Alameda, and moving there could strain the Roots’ pitch to residents that the team is firmly community-based — especially now that the A’s brand of being #RootedInOakland faces so much scorn among residents.

Why can’t the Roots just stay at Laney College? The average attendance there is around 4,600, and twice-weekly home games bring out an energized fanbase, despite the team’s middling finishes in its first two USL Championship seasons.

Both the Roots and John Beam, the athletic director at Laney College, agree they have a harmonious working relationship. But the team’s home games have begun conflicting with Laney College’s own athletics programs and classes, prompting Beam to ask the Roots to turf over a nearby grass field so there’s more space to go around.

The Roots have also had to apply a new layer of artificial turf to the Laney College football field each game so it’s large enough for regulation soccer — an expensive process that Barenz said isn’t sustainable long-term.

Still, Beam believes there’s a pathway for the team to stick around Laney College if finding a new home proves too difficult.

“The Roots are going to spend a ton of money for an empty site, and then build a permanent site elsewhere — wouldn’t it make more sense to remain here at Laney in the heart of Oakland?” he said in an interview.

Barenz has spent the offseason planning the team’s future at the Roots’ state-of-the-art practice facility,  just north of the city’s airport, which the Raiders inhabited before fleeing for Las Vegas,

The compound is impressively large for an American soccer team that does not compete in the MLS, and the locker room area is painted the team’s signature black, though the walls still sport Raiders’ logos.

The Roots will likely need to move out of the compound soon, Barenz said, since the city and county are looking to auction it off. And while the team might look to purchase the property, management hasn’t decided if it’s worth the investment.

In the end, it’s just one of many big decisions for a sports franchise carrying the hearts of Oaklanders on its back.

“We’re at the vanguard of what it means to run a professional sports franchise in the 21st century,” Barenz said. “And we know there’s a better way to do it.”