Gladiators to roll the dice in Las Vegas

by Marc Viquez
Published on December 19, 2002 under Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)

What a strange past few days it has been for fans of the former New Jersey Gladiators. One moment it looked as if the Arena Football League season was just around the corner. But in the last several days rumors spread that the team would relocate to Las Vegas, and it became evident that a promising season in New Jersey was not to be.

The team will now be called, drum roll please, The Las Vegas Gladiators. An official announcement was scheduled for late in the week, and owner Jim Ferraro's team will call the Thomas & Mack Center home for the 2003 season. The strange part about the move, unlike recent city shifts with the NBA Charlotte Hornets and Vancouver Grizzlies, this appeared out of the clear blue sky. In fact, season ticket packages were still being offered on the teams' official website this week.

"We went to the team offices ourselves and everything was packed up. They had Ryder trucks parked outside," said team fan club member Bruce DiBisceglie who headed the team's official fan club and a season ticket holder since the franchise's inception. "The team was still sending out affordable ticket packages and now my wife wonders if that included air fare."

It was no secret that the team could have attracted more fans to their home games the past two seasons. It would have been nice to have 10,000 or more packing the Continental Airlines Arena, cheering their team on to victory during their opening round loss to the Orlando Predators this past summer. However, the past two seasons failed to make a dent in the saturated sports market of New York/New Jersey and now it trades it in for the saturated entertainment market of Las Vegas. Will fans pass up Siegfried & Roy for Gladiators vs. Firebirds?

Las Vegas has had its share of professional teams coming and going during the past decade. There have been CFL and XFL football, indoor soccer, minor league hockey, and roller hockey. There were nine teams in all with an average lifespan of two years. The city had an Arenaball team called the Las Vegas Sting, but they lasted only two seasons before relocating to Anaheim after the 1995 season. The Gladiators come to the desert a mere six weeks before the start of the season, making marketing, sponsorship selling, and ticket sales a rougher task in such short time.

To make matters even more bizarre was that the team was coming off a 9-5 finish in 2002 and a division championship. The Glads improved from a 2-12 record the season before and hosted their first playoff game. The television contract with NBC would have resulted in the national airing of 14 out of 16 games for the team. Core players were returning under head coach Frank Haege and perhaps this could have been the season that more fans tuned into the Gladiators both on television and at the gates. It could have been a season in which the team made a serious playoff run.

Nevertheless, the team exodus from Meadowlands has left a lot of questions and head scratching. According to an Associated Press story the team had signed a contract with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority for the upcoming season at $5,000 a game. The Gladiators had been playing free of rent the past two seasons, but has not notified the NJSEA on its departure. Chief executive George Zoffinger is expecting the team to honor its contract, which is worth $40,000.

The team still owes between $3,000-$4,000 in services to Charles Rizzo, who owns a Flemington-based printing company. Then there are the 203 men who tried out last month for a chance to play for the team and the season ticket holders who were expecting to watch a team this season at the Meadowlands. Tickets were still being offered on the team's official website on Thursday night.

"We are all devastated," added DiBisceglie. "This is a black eye to the league and to the NBC contract. I cannot believe the league let them do this."

It was fans like DiBisceglie that the Gladiators could have used a lot more of. Unfortunately, many probably never even knew the team existed. When I told a couple associates of mine about the Gladiators' departure, they referred to the team as the Red Dogs, a name the squad has not used in two seasons. The Gladiators rarely made the sports pages around here, but even that was changing last season.

"This was the most promising season for the team coming off their 9-5 season and having the majority of their players coming back," added DiBisceglie.

Then there is the question of moving the team across the country to Las Vegas, which ultimately disturbs the balance of the Eastern Division. The league has been talking about placing a franchise in Philadelphia for quite some time, but it already has ownership in the city, making a Glads' move down the turnpike impossible. The relocation of the team was simply a shock to many of its potential fans.

"This product was sold to kids," DiBisceglie added, referring to the number of young people in the team's fan club. "They do not know the difference between the Gladiators and the Yankees. These kids loved this team and when I told my son they moved he cried."

Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from December 19, 2002

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