At the Sept. 21 city council meeting, the two groups agreed that the installation of a grove of tall trees to hide the team's large white practice tent should be called off.

The SaberCats and the Santa Clara Unified School District will not be renewing their agreement when it ends in June 2005. The team plans to vacate the field, taking the tent—that sheltered players from inclement weather but also blocked neighbors' view of the hills—with them.

On Jan. 6 this year, the Sunnyvale City Council approved use of the tent, adding a condition requiring landscaping that would screen the tent. But because the team will not be on the field past the middle of next year, the SaberCats requested the condition be removed so they wouldn't have to spend $60,000 to put up trees that would be screening empty space in less than a year.

The council removed the condition unanimously, in part because neighbors—who had once been adamantly opposed to anything the team proposed—actually agreed.

"The solution presented is to put in a permanent blockage of the hills to hide a tent that is coming down, so in my view, that is just not a good idea," said Ken Jorgensen, who spoke out against the tent at several past meetings.

School district business administrator Roger Barnes said removing the condition helps the district because they would have been left with maintenance or removal fees after the team left if the trees were put in.

As part of the approval, Councilman Ron Swegles proposed to have the school district discuss using the $60,000 set aside by the SaberCats for the trees for school or city improvement projects. He said that instead of letting the team keep the money they would have spent on the trees, the city should use it for its own purposes, even though the city has no claim to money set aside by a separate company for its own use.

City Attorney Valerie Armento said a discussion of redirecting the funds should not be made a condition of the approval however because what the SaberCats choose to do with that money is not the city's business and because the original agreement is between the team and school district.

Even with the SaberCats and residents in agreement, the discussion was not free of conflict.

Former Vice Mayor Tim Risch—who recently filed papers to begin fundraising for his 2005 council campaign—criticized the council for approving the tent in January because he said the neighbors' concerns were not heard.

In response, Vice Mayor Dean Chu asked for a clarification from staff as to when the tent was originally approved, verifying that Risch had been on council when the matter was first discussed. Before the vote, Chu remarked that the current council had to deal with a situation that the immediate past council chose not to deal with when it was presented to them, but instead "chose to deal with it after the fact."

Aside from the discussion between Risch and the council, the rest of the speakers in the audience agreed with the SaberCats. Many of them seemed to be ready to put the whole tent issue behind them and move on.

"I think we solved what was once a contentious issue and it will all be over in a couple of months," Councilwoman Julia Miller said in closing.