SaberCats = Dead To Me

The San Jose SaberCats are rescheduling their April 12^th game so as not to conflict with the likely Sharks playoff game that same day. The Sabercats will change their start time from the night to the afternoon, allowing the Sharks to play in the nightcap at 7:30.

Wait, no, that makes sense, so let’s do this instead:

“[The SaberCats will] move their start time against Philadelphia that Saturday night from 7:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. - and that's the best-case scenario.

The worst case? One of those epic multiple-overtime games that define the thrill of the Stanley Cup playoffs. If that happens, the football game could start close to midnight and finish after the downtown bars close.”

Surely, this must be at the insistence of the San Jose Sharks. San Jose’s premiere sports franchise must have priority for their Stanley Cup playoff game, and chose to play the early game at 2 p.m.

Wait, no, the Sharks are getting shafted:

“Ken Arnold, the Sharks' senior director of communications, noted that the Sharks asked the SaberCats to play at noon so the Sharks would be at night.”

Uh… uh… well, ok, maybe one of the SaberCats has a doctor’s appointment? Promised to drive their mom to the airport? I mean, there’s got to be a legitimate reason for the steadfast refusal to switch time slots:

“[Phil Simon, SaberCats Director of Media Relations] said, "People were already coming to a night game. To completely change the time to earlier in the day would interfere with plans that these folks had already made."

You know what? You’re absolutely right, Phil. I imagine your reasoning went something like this:

“Never in the history of sports has a game ever had to be rescheduled. Never. Having our fans show up at 12 o’clock ON A SATURDAY would be a horrible, horrible inconvenience. Instead, they should show up at 8:45! Or 9:30. Or 11:30. Y’know, whenever that first game is over, because no one has any idea when that could be. Rather than inconvenience our fans by scheduling a firm start time on a Saturday afternoon, we’ll inconvenience them by scheduling a random start time in the middle of the night!”

Oh, also, that 8:45 start time is bullshit by the way. Let’s take a look at the example from the Merc:

“In 2004, a Sharks game started at noon, the deciding goal came less than two minutes into overtime, and the SaberCats kicked off at 8:37 p.m.”

Let’s say this overtime game’s length is roughly equivalent to that of a playoff (more ads). The SaberCats started their game almost 9 hours after the Sharks started their game. Applying that math, in the best case scenario of no playoff overtime periods, the SaberCats will kick off at 10:45 p.m. on Saturday. In the best case scenario!

SaberCat stupidity aside, this could have a huge impact on the Sharks. Players and coaches must rearrange their regular night game routine at the most critical time – Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The only justification I can imagine is the SaberCats trying to get their Pee Wee football team recognized as legitimate by not letting the real sports team do what they want. To do that, they’re pissing off every Sharks fan in the Bay Area and everyone in the Sharks organization. Which raises another question – the Sharks, SaberCats, and HP Pavilion are all owned by Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment. Why aren’t they stepping in and fixing this?