TO: CITY COUNCIL FROM: Mayor Matt Mahan
Vice Mayor Pam Foley
Councilmember Kamei
Councilmember Tordillos
Councilmember Mulcahy
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: August 22, 2025
Approved:
SUBJECT: Actions Related to SAP Center, Sharks Ice, and Future Arena District Agreement
RECOMMENDATION
Approve staff’s recommendation related to the Agreement with San Jose Arena Management, LLC for SAP Center at San Jose, Sharks Ice, LLC for Sharks Ice at San Jose and Tech CU Arena, and Memorandum of Understanding with Sharks Sports & Entertainment and Associated Agreements
BACKGROUND
The City opened the SAP Center in 1993 as the home of the San Jose Sharks, and since then the arena has hosted professional sports, concerts, and national events. Now 32 years old, it is the NHL’s oldest active arena without major renovations.
The Sharks have maintained the facility to a high standard, but the arena no longer meets NHL requirements. Outdated back-of-house areas and aging systems limit attracting top tier entertainment talent, hinder player recruitment, diminish the fan experience, and weaken competitiveness against newer venues. Sharks Ice and Tech CU Arena serve as the team’s training base and a hub for community programming.
In the next five years, Sharks Sports and Entertainment is projected to generate more than $1.25 billion in economic impact and support 25,000 hotel room nights annually, underscoring its role as a cornerstone of San José’s economy. The Sharks place San José on the national and international map while advancing the City’s values of racial and social equity as the most racially diverse team with the league’s most diverse fanbase.
COUNCIL AGENDA: 08/26/2025
FILE: 25-909
ITEM: 8.2
By reinvesting in San Jose’s premier sporting venue, the City affirms San Jose’s cultural identity, strengthens downtown’s economic vitality, and ensures the region remains a destination for world-class sports and entertainment.
The signers of this memorandum have not had, and will not have, any private conversation with any other member of the City Council, or that member’s staff, concerning any action discussed in the memorandum, and that each signer’s staff members have not had, and have been instructed not to have, any such conversation with any other member of the City Council or that member's staff.