Yster Charles "Chet" Soda (March 15, 1908 – March 12, 1989) was an American businessman who was the first general partner and general manager of the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

, an original franchise in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...

(AFL).

Business

Soda was a contractor and land developer who operated A. Soda & Sons, a business begun by his father, and H & S Developers. He owned or managed a number of shopping centers in California as well as a trailer park and golf course. He also owned two ranches where he raised Hereford cattle and

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...

horses. Soda played a major role in the development of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex and as a minority owner of the

California Seals The California Golden Seals were a professional ice hockey club that competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1967–68 NHL season, 1967 to 1975–76 NHL season, 1976. Based in Oakland, California, they played their home games at the Oa ...

, was instrumental in the relocation of the team to Oakland.

Oakland Raiders

Soda was one of eight founding partners in the Raiders, others including F. Wayne Valley and Donald Blessing. Soda was allegedly the source of the team's original name, the "Oakland Senors;" although Soda himself professed to prefer to name the team the "Oakland Mavericks." Whoever named the team apparently chose "Senors" as an inside joke reference to Soda, who was known for referring to his associates as "señor." The new name was subject to much ridicule in the press, with particular attention given to the misspelling of the plural of "señor" and to the lack of a tilde over the "n", and was overruled less than two weeks after it had been announced. Soda's involvement in the team was limited to its first year; immediately after the 1960 season, he resigned as general manager. Two weeks later, Valley, Ed McGah, and Robert Osbourne bought out Soda and the other partners' shares in the franchise.

Government service

Soda was a member of the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners from 1969 to 1980 and the California Horse Racing Board from 1969 to 1977. He previously served on the board of directors of the

Oakland Museum of California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

during its organization and construction.

Business

Oakland Raiders

Government service

References

See also