Could the future home of the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco also be the future home of the San Jose Sharks?
It doesn’t sound likely, but the door hasn’t exactly been closed, either. Appearing on Comcast SportsNet’s Yahoo! Sports Talk Live on Wednesday night, Warriors owner Joe Lacob was asked about the possibility of giving Sharks owner Hasso Plattner a ring to potentially relocate the Sharks.
“We do talk to the Sharks. They have their own situation, they have to evaluate that,” Lacob said. “Our building is honestly being built for basketball, number one, for concerts, number two. It will be able to accommodate hockey, but that’s not the major goal of it.
“They have a great home in San Jose, they draw very well. I think they’re happy, to be honest with you. I don’t see that happening, but could it happen? You never know. You never want to say never.”
Perhaps a likelier scenario would be the Sharks relocating their AHL team to San Francisco once the Warriors’ arena is ready in 2018. That team, on its way from Worcester for the new AHL Pacific Division, will begin play at SAP Center in the fall but that may not be a long-term arrangement.
SAP Center, which opened in 1993, will be tied for the fourth-oldest NHL venue at the start of the 2015-16 season (not including Madison Square Garden in New York, which recently completed a major, multi-year renovation). Anaheim’s Honda Center also opened in 1993.
The only other buildings older than the Sharks’ home are Rexall Place in Edmonton (1974), Joe Louis Arena in Detroit (1979) and the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary (1983). Construction is already underway on new buildings for the Oilers and Red Wings, while the Flames are also reportedly close to announcing plans on a new arena.
