Happy New Year from Oakland Ballers
A look back at 2024 and a look forward to 2025
Happy New Years Ballers Fam,
Are you ready for 2025? We definitely are. We can’t wait to continue to build on what we started last year, and to get back to Town Biz.
2024 was a lot. In the world, sure. But also for the Oakland Ballers. We couldn’t be more proud of all we accomplished together. Here are a few highlights as we reflect on our inaugural season as your pro baseball team in Oakland:
- We launched a new pro baseball team in the Town and vowed never to leave Oakland.
- Together with the community, we built a ballpark at Raimondi, a municipal park that was formerly an unplayable little league field.
- We introduced you to the Pioneer Baseball League - a historic independent league that has been around since 1939, and has seen the likes of Cody Bellinger, Pedro Martinez, Cal Ripken, Frank Thomas, and countless more of the games biggest stars come through.
- Scrappy The Rally Possum hit the scene - and won hearts with dope dance moves.
- We had 3 Ballers players get signed to MLB teams - Danny Kirwin, Tyler Davis, and Elijah Pleasants. Not bad for an expansion team.
- We partnered with Oaklandish to build an incredible Ballers apparel line.
- We sold over 11,000 Ballers hats.
- More than 30 people got Ballers tattoos. (Big shout out to Pastime Tattoo in San Leandro)
- We saw about 100,000 fans at Raimondi in our inaugural season.
- We welcomed over 60 sponsors to the Ballers family, a majority of whom are local businesses.
- We partnered with BART and AC Transit to make sure anyone could take public transportation to games. West Oakland BART station saw an 11% increase in ridership over the summer, and AC Transit saw a 15% increase in routes through the neighborhood.
- We made the field at Raimondi Park accessible to local groups. Over 20 little league games have been played.
- We welcomed over 40 community groups to the ballpark including The Unity Council, Youth Alive, Oakland Animal Services, the Panther Skate Park, Scouting America, and the Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network.
- We established partnerships with beloved institutions like the Oakland Zoo, Fairyland, the Oakland Museum of California, the Oakland Symphony and UCSF Children’s Hospital.
- We invited fans to become Ballers owners through our community investment round, bringing 2200 fans into our ownership group.
- We held an election to bring a fan onto our Board Of Directors, and welcome Jorge Leon, president of the Oakland 68s, as our newest board member.
- We led the Pioneer League in the second half, and made the playoffs in our first season.
- 50 home games at Raimondi Park. They were all hella fun.
We have a lot to be thankful for. But mostly, we are thankful for all of you. Thank you for inspiring us to remind the world that Oakland has the greatest sports fans in the world. They were starting to forget. When we set out to build a new baseball team, our goal was to center fans in everything we do. That’s still the plan. To do that, we need fan involvement at every level. This is our New Years Resolution for 2025. We call it radical participation.
If you have ideas for the Ballers - it could be a theme night or activation you want to see at the ballpark, a unique program you want to help create to build community around the Ballers, or even just a seed of an idea that you think would help make our fan experience a little better - hit us up. We’re not saying that we’ll be able to act on every idea, but we’ll give them all some serious thought. Just email your idea to info@oaklandballers.com and address it to Bryan and Paul.
When we say our team is Built By Oakland, we really mean it. After all, what is a sports team if not a community asset. The way we see it - this is the future of professional sports. Teams that are built with communities, and are a unique reflection of the communities they serve.
Let’s Go Oakland.
Bryan Carmel and Paul Freedman
