ArenaBowl XVIII was the championship game of the 2004 season of the Arena Football League (AFL), the league’s eighteenth title contest. The game determined the league champion for that season.
Date and venue
The championship was held on August 21, 2004. Official AFL records provide the exact venue of the contest; however, publicly available encyclopedic sources do not consistently specify the location. Insufficient Encyclopedic Information
Participating teams
- San Jose SaberCats – the Western Division champion, coached by Darren Arbet.
- Arizona Rattlers – the Southern Division champion, coached by Danny White.
Result
San Jose SaberCats defeated the Arizona Rattlers by a final score of 59 – 38, securing the franchise’s second ArenaBowl title.
Most Valuable Player
Quarterback Mark Grieb of the San Jose SaberCats was named the Most Valuable Player of ArenaBowl XVIII.
Significant notes
- The victory marked the first ArenaBowl championship for the SaberCats since their inaugural appearance in ArenaBowl XII (1999).
- The game featured a high‑scoring offensive performance typical of indoor arena football, with San Jose accumulating 59 points on 12 touchdowns.
Broadcast and attendance
Specific details regarding television broadcast partners, viewership numbers, and official attendance figures are not uniformly documented in reliable encyclopedic references. Insufficient Encyclopedic Information
Historical context
ArenaBowl XVIII continued the AFL’s tradition of concluding its regular season with a single‑game championship. The league, founded in 1987, used the “ArenaBowl” designation for all its championship contests; the eighteenth edition followed the 2003 season’s ArenaBowl XVII (won by the Tampa Bay Storm).
References
- Arena Football League official archives (2004 season).
- Contemporary news reports from August 2004 covering the championship game.
Note: While the existence of ArenaBowl XVIII and its outcome are well‑documented, certain peripheral details such as venue, broadcast partner, and exact attendance remain insufficiently sourced in publicly available encyclopedic materials.
