San Jose Sharks
How Sharks Plan To “Sharkify” Renovated SAP Center
SAP Center has big changes coming.
The San Jose Sharks announced more of their plans for the upcoming renovation of SAP Center at the Teal Reimagination Puck Drop Event on Tuesday night.
“First and foremost, it’s going to feel San Jose, and it’s also going to be undeniably the home of the San Jose Sharks,” said Sharks Senior Vice President Jon Gustafson. “The journey from the car, to the seat, to the food, back to the car, is super important for us, and I’m just super excited to roll this out.”
San Jose Sharks players are also excited about the renovations, from the improvements to their facilities to the improved experience for fans.
Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Yaroslav Askarov & more share a special message for #SJSharks fans about the re-imagined SAP Center and how much they’ve appreciated the return of fans to the building pic.twitter.com/zI33glQS97
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 1, 2026
The renovations will take place over the next four to five years, with the goal of minimizing disruptions. While a few smaller projects will begin this upcoming summer, bigger changes are ahead for future summers, or “phases” of the project.
Executives from the San Jose Sharks, as well as their renovation partners spoke about new premium experiences, esthetic upgrades, and more.
New Levels
Each level of SAP Center will take on new energy and, for some, spaces and purposes.
The level where the Sharks enter the rink, will be the new Legends Level, the Club Level will become the Premier Level, the Main Concourse will remain the Main Level, and the Penthouse Level will become the Loft Level.
The Legends Level will include spaces for Sharks fans to watch the team walk out from the locker room to the ice, like the Captain’s Lounge – positioned between the Sharks and the visiting team’s locker rooms and rendered below.
This level will hold multiple premium spaces in addition to the Captain’s Lounge, with the First Line Lounge, as well as The Coves — a modern version of a bunker suite — rendered below.
Parking is also an important part of the equation for the Legends Level, with the goal to include valet services for guests to ease the entire experience.
Another fan experience, the Reimagination Studio, will have more information coming later this year.
Concourse
The renovations will open up the concourse to the arena bowl, creating connection between those two spaces.
A big expansion of the San Jose Sharks team store is also planned, tripling the size of the space.
“That size is going to fundamentally change how we do merchandise and retail business at the SAP center, and it’s going to fundamentally change how we connect with you in our new home, in our new space right here,” a representative from Aramark said.
The representative added that they’re working to collaborate with more local partners to create limited edition merchandise drops.
And on the food and beverage side of things, the Aramark representative said they’ll be adding more self-checkout stations to reduce transaction times, as well as evolving the food experiences while keeping the local touch.
“We’re going to continue to work with local restaurants, local partners, maintain their very local, unique feel of the best that San Jose has to offer,” he said.
Esthetics
Also on the list of anticipated updates, SAP Center will be “Sharkified,” taking on more Sharks branding and decoration, moving beyond the strict multi-purpose identity of the building in the past, with Shark and deep ocean themes covering the building inside and outside.
Sharks Sports & Entertainment President Jonathan Becher said the goal is to make it clearer that SAP Center is the home of the San Jose Sharks. That incorporation won’t come at a cost of still representing the city, but instead a recognition that the Sharks are a big part of San Jose, a representative from Perkins&Will said.
As Sharks fans get farther into the depths of the arena, the feel will become more deep-sea like.
“When you’re up high on the loft level, we’ve got a lot of natural day lighting and everything there,” a representative from Perkins&Will said. “As you move through the building to the balcony, to the main concourse and down to the premier and Legends Level, you’re going to start to see the tone and the esthetics of the building change as you go through that.”
And there’s more still to come from the San Jose Sharks, both on the ice and at SAP Center. There’s still hope, in the near-future, for a sports and entertainment district anchored by the renovated arena.
“This is not the end. This is the beginning,” Becher said. “The Shark Tank has always been the convening place for the City of San Jose. We think it’ll be the convening place for all of Silicon Valley, coming forward. And so we start today, but this is the beginning of a journey, and you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
There are more renderings online at tealreimagination.com
If they’re going to try and represent the city of San Jose, I’d love to see Mexican culture represented in this revamp of the Tank. I don’t wanna see it as Silicon Valley, let’s bring it back to “The Valley of the Hearts Delight”. San Jose was an orchard town, and too many people see it as a tech hub.
“First and foremost, it’s going to feel San Jose, and it’s also going to be undeniably the home of the San Jose Sharks,” To address the first part, how do these plans represent San Jose in any way? I didn’t see anything other they have ambitions of connecting with local businesses to create merch they can sell. I wanna see things like a replica of the Orchard Supply Hardware train car, Lowriders, a Heulga bird, and a tamale stand.
Those behind the net seats look really bad. What’s the capacity if they remove a ton of seating behind the goal?
I really hope they don’t make the seats behind the net look like that. People standing up front up against the glass? I can just hear the “down in front” chants now.
Yeah, and those are some of the best seats if you want to splurge a bit. No need to make it like an NFL endzone club
Hey Sheng, pretty sure you mean “Aesthetics” instead of “Esthetics”..?
I saw that a few times, but I didn’t wanna be a total Al G about it.
HUGE money grab.
Plans look, smell of massive corporate ticket takeover.
Shoukd call it the Drunk Tank with all the bars.
IMO
Honestly I don’t have a problem with the way it is now. More toilets and food lines is the only thing I can think of. And more than one water bottle filler.
Well said. And I would add proper access to the locker room for the visiting team. And room for the backup goalie.