San Jose SaberCats' 20 years in Arena Football League ends with whimper

SAN JOSE

The field is just 50 yards long. Correct? In arena football, the dimensions are half as big. So when a team dissolves and vanishes - poof! - you would figure that it would hurt only half as much.

Darren Arbet is finding that theory to be a lie. He is feeling far more than 50 yards of hurt and melancholy. Especially this week.

“I’m still having to kind of wrap my mind around it,” Arbet said recently. “On the phone the other day, I was in a conversation and it was like, ‘We should all be getting ready for the season.’”

He meant another season with the San Jose SaberCats. His team. The one he once coached for 15 years. Friday night, the 2016 Arena Football League schedule kicks off, with no Bay Area franchise. No more SaberCats. What, you hadn’t noticed?

20 YEARS IN BAY AREA

Surely you did, even just in passing. Ever since their founding in 1995, the SaberCats had been a member of the local professional sports tribe. They won four Arena League championships. Their owners - principally the Fry family of Frys.com electronics retailing, plus Arbet himself - doted upon the team. There was a loyal fan base, numbering in the thousands.

To be sure, the SaberCats were considered to be more of a carnival than a real athletic enterprise by some people, what with those crazy 88-82 final game scores and the motorcycle riders who led the players onto the field amidst fireworks. But the reality is, every modern pro sport has carnival aspects. Arena football just had a lot more Tilt-A-Whirl elements than the rest.

And you can’t deny that the SaberCats were quite a Tilt-A-Whirl to witness, right through last summer. The team posted a 17-1 regular season record, then won the league title again in a game that was moved to Stockton because (irony alert) the actual circus was booked at SAP Center for that same Saturday night in August.

A few evenings later, there was a victory celebration banquet at the Sainte Clare Hotel. John Fry gave every indication the team would return for 2016, better than ever. As late as Nov. 5, the team’s website was posting news releases about roster moves. But on Nov. 13, the league announced that the SaberCats ownership had decided to cease operations.

Arbet was surprised along with everyone else, even if the bottom line had been subsidized by the Fry organization for years. He has refused to be angry about it. A Stockton native, Arbet took his first arena football job in 1992 at age 25. In 1999, he became head coach of the SaberCats and never left the franchise, despite offers to join NFL or college staffs.

“They were all great years for me,” Arbet said. “I can’t say enough good things about the Frys. They took me in, almost as a family member, treated me well and the players well. How can I be mad at them? They made sure I would be OK when this was over with.”

NO EXPLANATION GIVEN

The Fry family has never officially explained its reasons for abandoning the SaberCats. Last October, the company also dropped its backing of a PGA Tour event in Napa. Were both decisions part of a corporate strategy to eliminate sports sponsorships?

Frys spokesperson Manuel Valerio said the company continues to have no comment on the SaberCats’ exit. However, Valerio noted that Frys executive Kathy Kolder’s recent statement that the corporation hopes to resume sponsorship of the golf tournament when the Frys-owned Institute Club in Morgan Hill can complete its long-delayed clubhouse and the event can be moved there.

So this was just a football pullout by Frys, apparently. The Arena League also won’t comment on why it happened, although commissioner Scott Butera continues to say he’s looking for new ownership of a San Jose franchise.

“We very much like the market,” Butera said last week. “We want to be in that market. We were sad to see the SaberCats leave. They were good to the league. But we respect their decision. We are actively seeking new ownership in that market.”

Fair enough. Except … what does “actively” mean?

Has he spoken with anyone specific?

“All those talks are confidential,” Butera said.

COACH SOUGHT BUYERS

Confidential? Or insubstantial? Arbet guesses it’s the latter.

“After last November,” Arbet said, “I personally went to Sacramento and Stockton and other places to meet with heavy hitters financially. No one wanted to take the team.”

Arbet would like to coach again, if the opportunity arises. For now, he continues to run his popular youth football camps and manage the rental properties he owns.

Most of his SaberCats assistants and players have found other work, the majority of them in the football business. (Not sure about the SaberKittens cheerleaders.)

Terry Malley, a SaberCats staff member for many years who has also coached at Santa Clara and San Jose State, admitted he was “disappointed” at last November’s news but said: “It’s hard to do anything but be appreciative of the Frys for what they did over the years with the team.”

Yet the Arena League always seemed to be on shaky financial footing, even as the SaberCats drew home crowds of 10,000 or more. That may always be the case. There were 12 franchises in the league last season. This season, there are eight, with three other teams exiting along with the SaberCats.

SAD FOR FANS

“I run into SaberCats fans who tell me they’re they’re sad,” Arbet said. “They were great. I’ve run into people who tell me they first came to SaberCats games when they were 5 years old and say they have a picture of me or a player signing an autograph for them. And they still remember. It’s pretty remarkable.”

Arbet said he will always be proud of his four championship rings and the fifth ring he received after his Arena Football Hall of Fame induction a few years ago.

“I think this all ended the way it was supposed to,” Arbet said. “You know, if you wanted to write an ending to that book, what better way to end it than with a championship in my hometown, you know?”

Still, it is more than half-sad to contemplate, for those who loved the SaberCats. This weekend at SAP, the motorcycles are silent.