{"id":75385,"date":"2025-06-15T05:04:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T05:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/75385\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T05:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T05:04:38","slug":"san-jose-sharks-matt-mahan-near-lease-extension-deal-for-sap-center-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/75385\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks, Matt Mahan near lease extension deal for SAP Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 The San Jose Sharks<\/a> appear to be on track to continue to play their home games at SAP Center \u2014 the same arena they\u2019ve called home since 1993<\/a> \u2014 for at least another quarter-century.<\/p>\n

The Sharks and the City of San Jose<\/a> announced Saturday at a State of the City event at Arena Green Park that they are nearing a new lease agreement<\/a> to keep the NHL franchise at the municipally owned downtown building for another 25 years.<\/p>\n

If finalized, any new lease agreement<\/a> for SAP Center would still have to be approved by City Council.<\/p>\n

Financial details were unavailable, but San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan<\/a> told Bay Area News Group the city will invest significantly in the 32-year-old facility as part of the proposed lease agreement. Mahan said he expects the deal to be approved by council next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in San Jose, we\u2019ve had a hometown team that has helped put San Jose on the map for over 30 years,\u201d Mahan said at Saturday\u2019s event. \u201cAnd when the city council officially approves our new agreement, they\u2019ll be here for at least 25 more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks, the arena\u2019s primary tenant, say they\u2019ve sunk tens of millions of dollars<\/a> into the building but wanted the city to contribute to the cost of non-revenue-generating upgrades, including the facility\u2019s aging plumbing and elevators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things that matter the most are the things that fans don\u2019t know or necessarily see every single day,\u201d Jonathan Becher,<\/a> president of Sharks Sports & Entertainment, told this newspaper. \u201cThat\u2019s where the big emphasis is, on making sure this building can survive and grow and thrive for its 25 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose city dignitaries and residents gathered to hear Mayor Matt Mahan\u2019s state of the city address at Arena Green East on May 17, 2025. (Devan Patel\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mahan\u2019s long-term goal is to create a downtown\u00a0sports and entertainment district<\/a>\u00a0near the arena and expand the convention center so that the city can host more significant events.<\/p>\n

In a short speech on Saturday, Becher said, \u201cWe are extraordinarily excited to be in the final stages of a new agreement with the city, which will reinvest in the SAP Center to serve everyone in the San Jose community for many generations to come, hopefully a lot longer than just 25 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut not just that, to attract millions of visitors from all over the Bay Area and beyond to this beautiful city we love called San Jose. But we hope that\u2019s only the first step in what is a much larger possibility for an arena district around the SAP Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks have been eager to negotiate a new long-term lease agreement with the city. The present deal, signed in 2015, called for the Sharks to play their home games at the facility<\/a> on a fixed term through July 1, 2025, with the lease renewing annually through 2040 thereafter.<\/p>\n

Without a new deal, the city could have potentially charged the Sharks more each year to lease the arena. But Becher had become increasingly upbeat about negotiations, saying last month that, \u201cWe\u2019re way past (being) pessimistic or cautiously optimistic. We will get something done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becher said SS&E had contingency plans for a new home rink in case negotiations with the city on a new lease agreement at SAP Center fell through. However, the organization, led by owner Hasso Plattner, always wanted to remain at the arena, dubbed the Shark Tank, which has a seating capacity of 17,435 for hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last year and a half, with the newer City Council and Matt (Mahan) as the mayor, there\u2019s been a focus on the things that actually matter to both sides,\u201d Becher said. \u201cAnd things have come together quite quickly over the last year, and this has been a win-win where everyone has been focused on one thing, which is, how do we deliver world-class events, not just hockey games, to a city for another 25 years, not just for the last 30.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: May 17, 2025 at 10:01 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 The San Jose Sharks appear to be on track to continue to play their home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5127],"tags":[2616,4087,2617,5,1180,40,4,5192,519,168,5306,5305,2618,1780,2619,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-75385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose-sharks","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-pm-report","16":"tag-san-jose","17":"tag-san-jose-sharks","18":"tag-sanjose","19":"tag-sanjosesharks","20":"tag-santa-clara-county","21":"tag-sharks","22":"tag-south-bay","23":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114685638793765015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}