The Oakland Roots’ Edreece Arghandiwal Wants to See the Town Win

The Oakland Roots know how to gather the people, whether it’s for the game, the halftime show or the tailgate in the Coliseum parking lot. On March 14, fans in Roots gear will pour out of BART and cross the tunnel into the stadium for the opening game of the 2026 season, which will feature a performance by Bay Area rap legend E-40.

Team co-founder Edreece Arghandiwal has spent years dreaming up this kind of experience for fans: tens of thousands of people representing all the different worlds that make up Oakland, dancing and cheering in the stands, celebrating the city they love despite the hurdles it might face.

That love of culture and connection has been a driving force in Arghandiwal’s life. Born in Oakland to Afghan parents who became refugees during the Soviet invasion, Arghandiwal attributes a lot of his self-belief in his parents’ faith in him and the values they instilled.

“Much of the principles that make Afghans really bleeds through our Oakland community,” he says. “We’re prideful, we’re rich in culture. Many of those ideologies just fit the identity of my family.”

Because of the cultural layers he has navigated throughout his life, Arghandiwal thinks about identity a lot. Our conversation takes many philosophical turns as he pulls passages from the books he’s reading. He connects Black Panthers founder Huey P. Newton and Indigenous author Sherman Alexie back to the questions he’s asking himself about how to continue sculpting the team’s identity in a city beleaguered by structural inequality and negative stereotypes.

“Knowing your roots, whether or not those roots or that history is difficult or good, creates a sense of identity, and you just have to embrace it,” reflects Arghandiwal, who serves as the Roots’ chief marketing officer.

Arghandiwal’s vision for the club isn’t just about winning, but uplifting Oakland through sports and creative expression. “Oakland’s history is rich, it’s diverse. There’s a lot of political activism, arts, music that has come from here,” Arghandiwal says. “I think forgetting about the things that make a place what it is, is actually what leads to the detriment of it.”

Arghandiwal first tasted entrepreneurial success as a student at UC Davis. “I threw a concert with Mistah FAB, Lil B, the Pack and a whole bunch of Bay Area artists,” he recalls. “I had my parents cut a 5K check for me to pay for the AV system. And they’re like, ‘This kid is crazy, it better work.’”

But his risks weren’t reckless, and he made the money back. “I always had the data points,” he says.

It’s a strategy Arghandiwal used to approach his first investors years later. Before the Roots ever signed their first player or joined a league, they needed an identity: A story that could galvanize the love and support of the city before they even knew the names of the players on the field.

With his love of soccer and years of tech marketing experience, Arghandiwal set out on a mission. In 2018 he approached the clothing brand Oaklandish with a logo and brand identity, and told them he and his co-founders planned to start a professional team.

Oaklandish believed in him. Without funding, they developed a lifestyle capsule collection. “It did numbers,” he says. “It was flying off the shelves.”

Just as Oaklandish saw Arghandiwal’s vision, so did investors. Mike Geddes, Roots co-founder and chief purpose officer, credits Arghandiwal and his storytelling prowess. “The fact that we can gain visibility for our creative side is a huge advantage we have,” he says. “We want the brand to be more than just soccer. We want it to be about culture, purpose, artistic collaborations, and that’s all him.”

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 in Chinatown and Longfellow Fields in North Oakland.

“Generally, sports teams are vehicles for billionaires to just extract revenue from a community, and then when things don’t work out, you move to a different community,” he notes. “That wasn’t our intent.”

Arghandiwal’s ethos is the antithesis of this kind of extractive model. “This 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.”

Using the Roots’ as a vessel for change, Arghandiwal and his team aspire to create another model — one that puts the people first.

“I live in an apartment downtown overlooking Lincoln Square Park,” he says. “I look out there and I see kids playing, and I’m like, ‘Yep, that’s exactly the affirmation I need.’ … What moves the needle for me is moving the needle for my people.”