On Wednesday morning, The Town FC and the African American Sports Entertainment Group (AASEG) announced a “strategic alliance” to explore bringing an NWSL team to Oakland that they hope would eventually play at the redeveloped Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex. The National Women’s Soccer League is the highest level of women’s professional club soccer in the U.S. and features numerous U.S. women’s national team members, including Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan.
“The announcement today signifies the next chapter in bringing the NWSL to the Bay Area to increase access not only to the sport of soccer but to open doors economically for underserved and underrepresented communities hungry for the sport,” said Eric Toda, one of the co-founders of The Town FC. “Partnering with the AASEG isn’t just a commitment to making sure this gets done, but a promise to every single little girl, like my own daughter, that she will get to wave a flag that looks like her for a sport she loves.”
Last November, the City of Oakland awarded AASEG an exclusive negotiating agreement to work out a deal to either buy or lease the city’s share of the approximately 120-acre property. AASEG wants to develop a large mixed-use complex on the property, with 35 percent affordable housing.
AASEG has also proposed turning the Oakland Coliseum complex into a hub for world-class professional sports. They are attempting to bring the first Black-owned NFL team and a WNBA team to the East Bay.
A Strategic Soccer Partnership
Earlier this year, The Town FC announced its intentions to bring a women’s and men’s professional soccer team to Oakland. The Town FC’s co-founder, Benno Nagel, was also the co-founder of another recent local soccer startup: the Oakland Roots.
Brien Dixon, one of the co-founders of AASEG, said the partnership between his group and The Town FC developed organically. Dixon had a long relationship with Nagel since when he was involved with the Roots. After The Town FC project was announced, they reconnected.
“I knew of him going to Bishop O’Dowd and him being the brain behind the Roots brand being built up,” noted Dixon. “When we talked, we saw that the visions aligned.”
Obstacles Remain
But any move to bring an NWSL team to the East Bay would face several challenges.
The first obstacle is that the Coliseum complex is jointly owned by the Oakland Athletics and the City of Oakland. Most significant decisions on the property are being delayed while the baseball team attempts to get approval to build a stadium at the Howard Terminal Complex.
Dixon noted that AASEG and the A’s have had discussions about the property’s future. “Amidst all the uncertainty or all the complexity, or all the kind of hypotheticals, but one thing that’s clear is that we share the belief that advancing sports at the site is a positive,” he said.
It might also bring international soccer friendlies back to the East Bay. The Coliseum previously attracted large crowds for matches featuring the United States and Mexican men’s national teams, Gold Cup matches, and friendlies involving Mexican professional teams, including Chivas and Club America.
Another hurdle is that a group in the South Bay, “NWSL to the Bay,” is submitting a bid for an expansion franchise this week, with a most likely start date of 2025.
“We feel confident about it,” Danielle Slaton, one of four ex-UWSNT stars in the group, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We’re excited to make our case.”
If the South Bay group’s application is accepted, it’s unclear whether that would preclude another NWSL team in the East Bay. The Town FC / AASEG bid is looking to acquire territorial rights for only the East Bay.
Also, the Oakland Roots have announced they are forming a women’s team named Oakland Soul that is expected to start to play in 2023 in an amateur league. The Roots are looking to build a new stadium in Oakland and possibly move their women’s team into a second-division professional league after it is constructed.
Using Sports to Better the Local Community
In spite of the obstacles, AASEG and the Town FC are excited by their partnership.
“We have this tagline of movement by people for the town, and if you look through the collective of folks on the Town FC side that gravitated to that idea,” explained Nagel. “We built what you would see in the town. You would see a broad spectrum of people from diverse backgrounds who share a common thread, in this case in sports, but in sports as a vehicle for bettering the community.
“I think us getting together just, it’s just kind of a meant-to-be thing because we know that we share the same vision and the same values,” he added.
“AASEG is community first in everything that we do,” said AASEG co-founder Malik Karim. He explained his group envisions the combined development at the Coliseum complex will serve as an economic stimulus for the East Oakland community.
“There’s a fine balance to where government can play their role, private industry can play their role, and the public play their role and all come together and we can be that mediator per se,” added Karim.
Town FC to start WPSL team in 2023
In the interim, The Town FC has already started assembling talent for an amateur women’s team to play in the WPSL, the Women’s Premiere Soccer League, in 2023 at St. Mary’s. According to Gina Woodward, who is heading the team’s recruiting, its roster will consist of former professional and Division 1 college players. Woodward played for the Bay Area Breeze, a W-League pro team, in 2011.
“I want it to be purpose-driven to help inspire the future,” said Woodward. “Let’s pay it forward, our experiences and knowledge, to help these girls become a powerhouse area of soccer which this area definitely has that potential.”
(Michael Koenig contributed to this report)
