The Interview: Lindsay Barenz
The Oakland Soul and Roots president on the Soul's crest launch on the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the club's mission, her role in the NWSL broadcast rights negotiation with CBS and Twitch and more
Lindsay Barenz is one of the most interesting people in U.S. soccer administration. Since January, she has been the president of the Oakland Roots and Soul, which have a hardcore mission-driven ethos with the community. Before that she worked in a series of fascinating jobs in and out of soccer, including the job of negotiating the NWSL’s broadcast rights deal with CBS and Twitch. I have wanted to learn more about Barenz for a while, and that finally happened this week as I got back from vacation.
The entirety of the written interview below is reserved for paid subscribers. As always, you can still get the entire free audio version of my podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to go for your pods.
Grant Wahl:
Our guest now is Lindsay Barenz. She's the president of the Oakland Roots and Oakland Soul, which is the women's team that launches its crest this Thursday on June 23, the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Barenz, a Yale law grad, has also worked for the Washington Spirit, the NWSL league office, Real Salt Lake and the Utah Royals, in addition to the Obama Administration. Lindsay, it's great to speak to you. Thanks for coming on the show.
Lindsay Barenz:
Thanks for having me, Grant. I'm so happy to be here.
Grant Wahl:
Lots to talk about here, but I definitely want to start with the news this week. What can you tell us about Thursday's crest launch for the Oakland Soul and the significance of launching it on the 50th anniversary of Title IX?
Lindsay Barenz:
The Oakland Soul is our new women's team that we're adding to the Oakland Roots family. It will play in the USL W League starting in 2023. And the club here has always had ambitions to have a women's team. We want the Oakland Roots and the Oakland Soul to represent the entire Oakland community, and so it is a critical item for the growth and development of our club.
The team here has spent months, if not years, talking to members of the community and developing an identity, including the name and the crest for the club. And we are launching it this Thursday at an event here in Oakland that we're super excited about. And yes, it happens to be the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the historic and groundbreaking legislation that has paved the way for women's athletics in the United States. And it's really an honor that we get to launch our crest that day and to celebrate all the great things that have come from that legislation.
“We came up with this hybrid deal [for the NWSL rights in 2019] with CBS and Twitch. And we put our first game on CBS in the middle of the pandemic. And over 500,000 people watched that game. Before that, the most watched game ever in the history of the NWSL was 180,000 people. We saw our audience explode overnight 3X. And I think that those deals, while I hope that the NWSL gets bigger and better deals every year to come, I think they were absolutely monumental in the growth of that league.” — Lindsay Barenz
Grant Wahl:
So we're coming out Monday, we're talking on Saturday, and it's interesting because if you go back in the 200-some interviews we've done for my podcast, I've had Edreece Arghandiwal from the Oakland Roots on here about a year and a half, two years ago. And then we also had Matthew Wolf who designed the crest for the Oakland Roots, which is a very cool crest. Is the crest for the Oakland Soul also going to be cool? Tell me about it or what you can.
Lindsay Barenz:
Well, the beautiful thing about my commentary on the crest is that I'm not responsible for the crest. So I can praise it and tell you how incredible it's going to be, and it's really not self-serving for me because substantial credit goes Edreece. Edreece is one of the founders of the Oakland Roots and Oakland Soul, and he has such a light and vision about him and what this organization should be. And he has led the entire way on developing the identity for the Oakland Soul. And the thing about the Oakland Roots and Oakland Soul is that we strive to be a different kind of sports club. We are very values-based, very mission-driven, and totally focused on our community.
And that might sound like something people have heard other sports clubs say, but in my experience it is a very unique identity that the Roots have and a totally unique commitment. And there is no gap between the words we say and the way we make decisions and the way we conduct ourselves in the community. That doesn't mean we're perfect. That doesn't mean we don't make mistakes, but unlike any other organization I've ever been a part of, and I'm not just speaking about sports, I'm talking about any organization I've ever been a part of, there is a deep, deep commitment to our mission and to developing health, equity and happiness here in Oakland, not just putting championship soccer on the field, which is absolutely part of our mission, but to being a contributing and positive member of the community.
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Grant Wahl:
In what sort of ways is that going to manifest itself with the Oakland Soul?