In the city American sport abandoned, the Socceroos have found a true home

Oakland: It’s been a bruising decade for Oakland sports fans. Not that long ago, the city boasted three teams in the major American leagues: the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, the NFL’s Raiders and MLB’s Athletics.

One by one, they all turned their backs on their community as their owners chased newer facilities in bigger markets for better commercial returns.

The Warriors shifted across the bay to San Francisco in 2019; at least they’re still close by. The following year, the Raiders left for the riches of Las Vegas, severing their link to the city with which they had been synonymous for decades. And in 2024, the famous A’s - the baseball franchise from the film Moneyball - relocated to West Sacramento, and will move again to Vegas once their new ballpark is built.

“You’re going to make me cry,” said Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, the mayor of Alameda, as the topic of the area’s unprecedented sporting exodus is raised. Alameda is technically its own city, to the south of Oakland, and is home to the venues that the Warriors, Raiders and Athletics teams used to play at.

For a gritty, industrial city that has always lived in the shadows of its bigger, wealthier and more glamorous neighbours - and is constantly fighting what the locals say are outdated stereotypes about violent crime - losing three professional teams within five years had a brutal impact on Oakland’s civic self-esteem.

“As a team, you’re nothing without your fans,” Ashcraft said. “And when the fans lose hope in you - and you betray them - that really says something about the organisation.”

The recovery is ongoing, but the arrival of the Socceroos this week is genuinely helping to heal the scars.

While the World Cup draw in December assigned the Socceroos to the “western region” of North America, it was still up to them to select a hotel and training site from the list provided by FIFA. Their reconnaissance work identified two standouts, and the Socceroos landed both: the Claremont Resort, a country club dripping with American old money vibes just to the north in Berkeley, and the old training base which was left vacant by the Raiders, next to the Oakland airport in Alameda, away from any distractions.

It has since been taken over by the Oakland Roots, an ambitious, celebrity-backed minor-league soccer club. Being an ex-NFL facility, it has all the relevant bells and whistles, and has been decked out in green and gold to welcome the Socceroos - but there’s still traces of its former life everywhere, with plenty of Raiders logos yet to be taken down.

“In all the years that the Oakland Raiders