SAN JOSE – Sharks Sports & Entertainment (SSE), the parent company of the San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) of the National Hockey League and San Jose Barracuda (@SJBARRACUDA) of the American Hockey League, along with PIVOT Agency, announced today that it has reached a 10-year agreement with Tech CU (@TechCU) to become the naming rights partner of a new, state-of-the-art, 4,200-seat arena being constructed at Sharks Ice at San Jose to be known as Tech CU Arena. The naming rights partnership was voted on and approved unanimously by the San Jose City Council earlier today.
“We are thrilled to announce this landmark partnership with a pioneer of the Silicon Valley,” said Brian Towers, Vice President, Sales & Service for the Sharks. “Tech CU is an award-winning financial institution, with an unwavering commitment to exceptional experiences for its members. Its role as a philanthropic leader in the San Jose community make it an ideal partner to open this state-of-the-art arena. We welcome Tech CU to the Teal Inner Circle and look forward to many years of partnership.”
With the naming rights partnership, Tech CU becomes the newest member of the Teal Inner Circle, an exclusive group within the SSE roster of corporate partners that share the organization’s vision to pioneer and co-innovate the future of sports, joining SAP, Kaiser Permanente, Zoom, and Western Digital. The partnership between Tech CU and SSE also includes presence at SAP Center at San Jose (@SAPCenter) with in-ice branding, ATM locations, and co-promotional activities. The engagement was facilitated by PIVOT Agency, (@PIVOTAgency) a full-service marketing and sponsorship agency hired to drive more integrated partnerships between SSE and like-minded organizations, with a focus on building purpose driven partnerships based on shared values, vision, and a collaborative approach.
“Given we were founded in Silicon Valley and are headquartered in San Jose, this partnership is a natural extension of our more than 60-year commitment to the area. Not only are we both iconic to our hometown, but we also share similar values and a love for our local community,” said Todd Harris, the CEO of Tech CU. “We believe this partnership will raise our profile among Sharks and Barracuda fans, further deepening our relationships and memberships in the region.”
Tech CU Arena is the crown jewel of a 200,000 square foot expansion of the Sharks Ice at San Jose public skating facility and will become the new home of the San Jose Barracuda. The venue is scheduled to open in August of 2022, in time for the start of the 2022-23 AHL season.
“Both Sharks and Tech CU are deeply committed to our local communities, said Robert Reed, EVP Chief Retail Banking Officer of Tech CU. “As the Official Credit Union of the San Jose Sharks and the San Jose Barracuda, we look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship in which we leverage our respective strengths to grow and serve our members and fans.”
A multi-level, multi-purpose arena, the Tech CU Arena will include locker rooms, training facilities and executive office space for the Barracuda, an in-arena video board and LED display, 12 premium suites, eight loge boxes, one theatre suite, a 46-person party deck, three bar locations including one at ice level, seven food concession stations, a press room and press box and two team merchandise stores.
Earlier it was announced that Tech CU Arena will host the 2022 Rookie Faceoff, an annual tournament facing the top NHL prospects from teams in the Pacific Division (San Jose, Anaheim, Los Angeles and Vegas) and two from the Central Division (Arizona and Colorado). The 2022 Rookie Faceoff will take place Sept. 16-19, 2022. The tournament was held in Arizona in 2021, Anaheim in 2019 and Las Vegas in 2018. This past year’s tournament featured several current Sharks players including Jasper Weatherby, Ryan Merkley, Santeri Hatakka and Artemi Kniazev.
In January 2020, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved the 200,000 square-foot expansion of Sharks Ice at San Jose, adding two additional recreational ice sheets to the facility, increasing the building’s total ice sheets to six and doubling the facility’s footprint to just under 400,000 square feet. The expansion will make Sharks Ice at San Jose the largest ice facility in the United States and will be LEED-certified Silver when complete with a focus on green building initiatives including Bloom Energy cells, high efficiency LED lighting, electric Zamboni, and electric vehicle chargers
Sharks Ice at San Jose is owned by the City of San Jose and has been managed and operated by Sharks Ice LLC, a subsidiary of Sharks Sports & Entertainment, since 1998. Since that time, the facility has seen two previous large-scale expansions. In 1999, a third ice sheet and a training facility for the San Jose Sharks was completed. In 2005, a fourth ice sheet and Stanley’s Sports Bar was added.
In conjunction with Sharks Ice at San Jose, Sharks Ice LLC manages and operates two other ice facilities in the Bay Area: Sharks Ice at Fremont and the Oakland Ice Center, operated by Sharks Ice.
The Sharks Ice family of rinks serves a diverse variety of ice sports including ice hockey, figure skating, broomball, curling, speed skating, ice dancing and public skating. The Sharks Ice umbrella is home to the largest adult hockey league in the United States, boasting more than 4,300 participants.
In addition to serving as the official practice and training facility for the Sharks and the Barracuda, Sharks Ice at San Jose also hosts the San Jose State University Spartans hockey team, the Jr. Sharks hockey program, the Peninsula Figure Skating Club and the Silicon Valley Curling Club.
Many of the Bay Area’s most prominent ice skaters have called the Sharks Ice family of rinks home, including 2019 and 2020 U.S. Figure Skating National Champion Alysa Liu who skates out of Oakland. In addition, 1992 Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi, 1996 U.S. National Champion Rudy Galindo, and 2014 Olympian Polina Edmunds have all been based out of Sharks Ice at San Jose. 2017 National Champion Karen Chen has also called Sharks Ice at Fremont home.
