HP Pavilion at San Jose
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| HP Pavilion at San Jose | |
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| The (Shark) Tank | |
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| Location | 525 West Santa Clara Street San Jose, California 95113 |
| Broke ground | 1991 |
| Opened | 1993 |
| Owner | City of San Jose |
| Operator | HP Pavilion Management |
| Surface | Ice (Wood or other flooring can be overlaid) |
| Construction cost | $162.5 million USD |
| Architect | Sink Combs Dethlefs Huber, Hunt & Nichols |
| Former names | San Jose Arena (1993-2001) Compaq Center at San Jose (2001-2002) |
| Tenants | San Jose Sharks (NHL) (1993-present) San Jose Sabercats (AFL) (1995-present) Golden State Warriors (NBA) (1996-1997) San Jose Stealth (NLL) (2003-present) San Jose Grizzlies (CISL) (1994-1995) San Jose Rhinos (RHI) (1994-1997) |
| Capacity | Basketball: 18,500 Concerts: 19,190 Hockey: 17,496 |
The HP Pavilion at San Jose, formerly known as Compaq Center at San Jose and San Jose Arena is an indoor arena located at 525 West Santa Clara Street in San Jose, California. The arena is also commonly called The Shark Tank or The Tank, both of which come from its primary tenant, the San Jose Sharks.
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[edit] History
Plans for an arena in San Jose go back to the mid-1980s, where a group of local citizens formed Fund Arena Now (FAN), a group dedicated to getting an indoor arena built in the city. The group spent much of it's time pushing city officials to build such a structure while at the same time selling the possibility of the building to interested groups, namely NHL and NBA franchises. In the late 1980s, then-San Jose mayor Tom McEnery met with FAN and helped to make their plans reality. Eventually, a measure was introduced in the 1988 general elections that would allocate local taxes toward building an arena in San Jose's growing downtown. The measure passed by the slimmest of margins, 73,409 "yay"s to 64,140 "nay"s.[1] The plans for the arena would eventually be one of the reasons that George and Gordon Gund would locate their new Bay Area NHL franchise in San Jose, which would eventually become the San Jose Sharks.
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Construction of the arena began in 1991, and was originally slated to open in 1992. The construction ran into a rather sizable delay, however, when the management for the San Jose Sharks realized the arena had been designed for community use, and that it needed a drastic redesign to upgrade the arena to NHL standards. Most notably, the original arena design had no luxury suites or a press box, with the introduction of the former to the original plans would have reduced the arena's seating capacity to 14,000. The time taken to redesign the arena delayed the opening of the building to 1993, forcing the Sharks to play an additional season at the Cow Palace.[2]
The arena opened in 1993 as the San Jose Arena. In 2001, naming rights were sold to Compaq, and the facility became Compaq Center at San Jose; the geographic identifier was needed because at the time, there was a Compaq Center in Houston. After HP purchased Compaq in 2002, the company chose to name the arena the HP Pavilion (as opposed to HP Center or HP Arena) after one of their computer models.
It was announced in late April 2007 that the HP Pavilion at San Jose would be receiving several building improvements, including a new scoreboard similar to that of the TD Banknorth Garden, home of the Boston Bruins of the NHL.[3]
[edit] Tenants
HP Pavilion at San Jose houses the following sports teams: the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League, the San Jose SaberCats of the Arena Football League and the San Jose Stealth of the National Lacrosse League. It is also the venue for the annual SAP Open men's tennis tournament.
The facility has also been home to the Golden State Warriors of the NBA during reconstruction of the Oakland Coliseum Arena, and the defunct San Jose Rhinos of RHI and San Jose Grizzlies of the CISL.
[edit] Other events
It hosts an average of 190 events a year, including many non-sporting events. In 2006, the HP Pavilion sold the most tickets to non-sporting events of any venue in the Western United States, and the fourth highest total in the world, after Madison Square Garden in New York City, the Manchester Evening News Arena in Manchester, and the Air Canada Center in Toronto.[4]
The arena hosts concerts by major acts such as Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Bon Jovi, U2, Miley Cyrus, Ashley Tisdale, The Cheetah Girls, The Smashing Pumpkins, Bryan Adams, Blue Man Group, Panic at the Disco, Metallica, Kanye West, Shakira, Mariah Carey, Ricky Martin, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Barbra Streisand, Madonna, RBD, Cher, The Spice Girls, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Janet Jackson, Maná, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Slipknot , Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, as well as numerous World Wrestling Entertainment events.
HP Pavilion has also played host for other sporting events, such as the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the NCAA Basketball tournament (known as March Madness), the Pac-10 women's basketball championship, and the Dew Action Sports Tour
[edit] Notable events hosted at HP Pavilion
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- January 18-21, 1996 - 1996 United States Figure Skating Championships
- January 18, 1997 - 47th National Hockey League All-Star Game
- January 18, 1998 - WWE's Royal Rumble
- August 19, 2001 - WWE's SummerSlam - remembered as the night The Rock defeated Booker T to win the WCW Championship.
- August 18, 2002 - ArenaBowl XVI - The San Jose SaberCats defeated the Arizona Rattlers 52-14 to claim their first Arena Football League title.
- March 10, 2006 - Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Gracie - HP Pavilion hosted the largest recorded audience for a mixed martial arts event. Attendance was reported at 18,265 people. The prior record was 14,562.[2].
- March, 2007 - 2007 NCAA Men's Basketball West Regional Final. (UCLA vs. Kansas)
- July 22, 2007 - WWE's The Great American Bash
- August 15-18, 2007 - 2007 USA Gymnastics Visa Championships
- December 2, 2007- The Return of the Spice Girls World Tour.
[edit] Fictitious events
- 2006 Democratic National Convention in the television series The West Wing.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ Cameron, Steve (1994). Feeding Frenzy! The Wild New World of the San Jose Sharks. Taylor Publishing Co., 43,51-52.
- ^ Cameron, Steve (1994). Feeding Frenzy! The Wild New World of the San Jose Sharks. Taylor Publishing Co., 51-56.
- ^ [1]
- ^ "2006 Year End Ticket Sales (pdf)", Pollstar, January 17, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Cow Palace |
Home of the San Jose Sharks 1993 – present |
Succeeded by current |
| Preceded by Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena |
Home of the Golden State Warriors 1996 – 1997 |
Succeeded by Oracle Arena |
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