Jonathan Becher watched Olympic gold-medal-winning hockey player Kendall Coyne Schofield become the first woman to compete in the NHL All-Star Game’s skills competition at SAP Center in 2019.

While the event itself was historic, Becher specifically remembers the sold-out crowd’s raucous reaction.

“I turned and looked at the people I was sitting next to,” Becher, president of Sharks Sports & Entertainment, said, alluding to Sharks owner Hasso Plattner and former general manager Doug Wilson, “and I said, ‘We’ve got to get a women’s hockey team here in San Jose.’ ”

Over seven years and multiple inquiries by SS&E later, San Jose has its own professional women’s team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, with the league officially announcing Tuesday that SAP Center will host the league’s 12th team, starting this fall.

The 12th team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League is here, and PWHL San Jose hosted its launch event on Tuesday.

In partnership with the San Jose Sharks, the new franchise will play at the SAP Center, officially marking the third professional hockey league in San Jose. Sharks president Jonathan Becher spoke to the media afterward. The president shed light on information regarding some logical questions and fun notes about PWHL San Jose.

Here is the full transcript from his media scrum:  https://sharkshockeydigest.com/pwhl-san-jose-video-sharks-president-talks-womens-hockey-becher/

San Jose landing a Professional Women’s Hockey League franchise clinches an upgrade for the Bay Area after a pair of high-profile pro sports departures from the region.

Opening Keynote Address
“Emerging technology has a powerful influence on customer expectations–and how airports can exceed them.
Hear from an executive who has built successful careers on both sides of the equation: a seasoned Silicon Valley tech executive who now leads a major league sports franchise with a primary focus on creating memorable customer experiences.”
Jonathan Becher, President, Sharks Sports & Entertainment

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.”

Sharks president Jonathan Becher recently spoke to NBC Sports California’s Alan Hoshida about why the overhaul of SAP Center is so necessary.

“Look, we all love this [place],” Becher told Hoshida. “This has been the heart of the Sharks for 30-plus years, it’s an iconic venue but it’s starting to show its age. The way you designed buildings in the 80s is different then you would design buildings now. And so you’re basically at a crossroads. Do you tear the baby down and try to build something new, which is really hard to do in Silicon Valley? Or do you say, ‘What would happen if I re-imagined how the building works?’

“What if I pretended I didn’t have 30 years of history and said, ‘How can we re-imagine the way the Tank works?’ How people approach it, how they get in, how they experience it, what the spaces look like. And so it’s the difference between changing the paint, like you might at your house vs. tearing it down to the studs and thinking [about] it all over again and we’re doing something closer to the second [option].”

Beyond filling more seats at SAP Center, the Sharks are seeing double-digit percentage increases across television viewership, merchandise sales and food and beverage revenue, with one executive crediting a significantly higher marketing budget and social media strategy.