HP PAVILION AT SAN JOSE

The 'HP Pavilion at San Jose', commonly called 'The Shark Tank' or 'The Tank', both of which come from its primary tenant, or, just simply, the 'HP Pavilion', or as the 'San Jose Arena' (after its former name), is an indoor arena located at 525 West Santa Clara Street in San Jose, California.

Contents

Name and tenants

Other events

Planned improvements

Notable events hosted at HP Pavilion

Fictitious events

References

External links

Name and tenants

Named after the computer company Hewlett-Packard in a naming rights arrangement, the HP Pavilion at San Jose houses the following sports teams:

★ NHL - Ice Hockey - San Jose Sharks

★ NLL - Lacrosse - San Jose Stealth

★ AFL - Arena Football - San Jose SaberCats
The arena opened in 1993 as the San Jose Arena. Before the building changed its original name because of corporate sponsorship, Sharks radio play-by-play broadcaster Dan Rusanowsky always referred to it as the "spectacular" San Jose Arena. Later, 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. (The former arena in Houston is now a church.)
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. It has also been used 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, the Dew Action Sports Tour, and the SAP Open men's tennis tournament.

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.^[1]
The arena hosts concerts by major acts such as Paul McCartney, The Smashing Pumpkins, Blue Man Group, Panic! At The Disco, Metallica, Kanye West, Shakira, Mariah Carey, Ricky Martin, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Barbra Streisand (three shows - 2 in 1994, 1 in 2006), Madonna, RBD, Cher, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Slipknot ,The Spice Girls as well as numerous World Wrestling Entertainment events.

Planned improvements

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.^[2]

Notable events hosted at HP Pavilion

★ 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.

★ June 2004, Piedmont Hills High School of San Jose held their graduation ceremonies

★ 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'

Fictitious events

★ 2006 Democratic National Convention in the television series ''The West Wing''.

★ A few scenes in the movie EdTV.

References

1. 2006 Year End Ticket Sales (pdf)
2. [1]

External links

★ HP Pavilion Website

★ Architect's Website