OAKLAND — Seeking to raise $2 million in community investments, the Oakland Ballers of the Pioneer League added two celebrity investors with local roots Wednesday to the ownership group.
Hip-hop star Too $hort and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong are on board at undisclosed sums.
The franchise has raised $205,000 and has set a ceiling of $2 million. A similar drive last year reached its $1.234 million goal in nine days with 2,200 fans as investors.
“The Ballers’ commitment to feeding that competitive fire is exciting for me as an Oakland native,” Too $hort said in a release. “I’m proud to be joining the Ballers ownership group, and excited for the impact we’re going to have on the community and the overall sports landscape in the Bay Area and beyond.”
Born in Oakland and raised in Rodeo, Armstrong has also supported Oakland’s men’s and women’s soccer teams, the Roots and Soul.
“Sports in the Bay Area have been transforming over the last couple of years,” Armstrong said in a statement. “We’ve had some emotional goodbyes to teams we grew up with, but recently there has been a major shift. The Oakland Ballers and the Oakland Roots and Soul represent everything I love and grew up on in the Bay Area.”
Armstrong twice made news last year with regard to the Athletics and their departure from Oakland to Sacramento and eventually Las Vegas under the ownership of John Fisher.
In August, Armstrong posted a video of himself appearing to spray paint over an A’s logo at Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays. A separate image displayed an A’s logo that was spray painted over with a green “B” — which is the insignia of the Ballers.
In September in a show at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Armstrong put Fisher on blast in front of a crowd of 43,000, saying, “We don’t take no (expletive) from people like John (expletive) Fisher, who sold out the Oakland A’s to Las (expletive) Vegas.”
Last week, Oakland’s men’s soccer team, the USL’s Roots, announced Too $hort will play halftime of the season opener later this month.
Fans can invest in the Ballers for a minimum of $510. Investors receive a digital certificate of ownership, the ability to vote in decisions and to elect a representative to the board of directors. It includes discounts on game and season tickets for a year. The second tier for $1,000 also includes an “on-field, in-game experience) and the third tier affords the opportunity to attend an owners meeting with team representatives. There additional perks for the fourth and fifth tiers, which cost $10,000 and $25,000.
The tiers at which Too $hort and Armstrong bought was not disclosed, but Ballers co-founder Paul Freedman said: “These two local legends were real supporters in our first season, and it’s great to now have them on board in a more formal capacity.”
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