A massive redevelopment project between the City of San Jose and Google has the San Jose Sharks organization crying foul, with the organization saying the current plan could force them to consider moving the team.
San Jose’s SAP Center sits in the heart of the city’s 250-acre Diridon Station redevelopment project, and roughly a third of that is Google’s Downtown West Campus.
The project has been in planning for a couple of years, but the latest update has the team concerned.
Jonathan Becher, president of Sharks Sports and Entertainment, told KCBS Radio that the current plan will strain access to the nearly three-decade old arena by disrupting traffic flow and infusing thousands of new workers to compete for limited parking.
“Based on their own analysis, it’s going to increase the number of daily trips in and out of the neighborhood by at least seven times--and maybe as much as 20 times--and yet the network of the streets is being narrowed,” he said.
He added that the team wants to stay and that’s he’s “stubbornly optimistic.”
“We don’t want to go, we were born here,” Becher said. “I’ve said we grew up here, we have a lease from the city, this is a city-owned building that allows us to stay until 2040.”
The plan calls for 60,000 new workers to come into San Jose, with roughly half of those at Google’s Downtown West campus, but only the potential for up to 5,000 new parking spaces.
Becher said the team is supportive of the plan's focus on mass transit, but said that this will disappoint many fans from the greater Bay Area.
He also said the arena relies on their parking.
“The Bay Area is a thriving area where public transportation doesn’t reach everywhere, and our fan network reaches all over Northern California,” he said, adding that he’s unclear how this new plan will work.
It is also unclear when the team could welcome fans back to the arena. The Sharks’ last home game was about nine months ago, and this has taken a toll on the local area.
Becher noted that the arena’s 175 yearly events provide an important economic boost to downtown businesses, and that he’s hopeful that the planning issues can be resolved.
“It’s estimated by the city themselves that we generate an extra $250 million of economic impact per year for all these other businesses,” he said. “If all these 175 events go away, those 5,000 jobs and $250 million of economic impact go away, also.”
The team is making an appeal to the city, and Becker said the team has not yet looked at relocation options, but it could be necessary.
The team sent a letter to fans this week, and a petition to keep the team in San Jose has circulated online.