{"id":215588,"date":"2026-03-11T23:26:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/215588\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T23:26:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:26:25","slug":"the-oakland-roots-edreece-arghandiwal-wants-to-see-the-town-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/215588\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oakland Roots\u2019 Edreece Arghandiwal Wants to See the Town Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just as Oaklandish saw Arghandiwal\u2019s vision, so did investors. Mike Geddes, Roots co-founder and chief purpose officer, credits Arghandiwal and his storytelling prowess. \u201cThe fact that we can gain visibility for our creative side is a huge advantage we have,\u201d he says. \u201cWe want the brand to be more than just soccer. We want it to be about culture, purpose, artistic collaborations, and that\u2019s all him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arghandiwal and his co-founders want the Roots to take on projects that actually make an impact. The team regularly supports youth sports programs and other community service. This month, they unveiled two new soccer fields where anyone can play: Lincoln Square Park<\/a> in Chinatown and Longfellow Fields<\/a> in North Oakland.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, sports teams are vehicles for billionaires to just extract revenue from a community, and then when things don\u2019t work out, you move to a different community,\u201d he notes. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t our intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Picture frames made by Oakland Roots players and staff sit on a table at the Oakland Roots Sports Club in Alameda on March 11, 2026. While making the frames, participants were asked to reflect on the question, \u201cWhat is your purpose?\u201d (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Arghandiwal\u2019s ethos is the antithesis of this kind of extractive model. \u201cThis mythology that you have to be insanely cut-throat and or cold to be successful is falsified because there are so many examples of it in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using the Roots\u2019 as a vessel for change, Arghandiwal and his team aspire to create another model \u2014 one that puts the people first.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live in an apartment downtown overlooking Lincoln Square Park,\u201d he says. \u201cI look out there and I see kids playing, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Yep, that\u2019s exactly the affirmation I need.\u2019 \u2026 What moves the needle for me is moving the needle for my people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just as Oaklandish saw Arghandiwal\u2019s vision, so did investors. Mike Geddes, Roots co-founder and chief purpose officer, credits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-215588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}