San Jose Sharks Team History

The Oakland Coliseum Arena was home to the California Golden Seals of the NHL from 1967 to 1976. Gordon and George Gund III became minority owners of the Seals in 1974, and were instrumental in their move to Cleveland in 1976 and a 1978 merger with the Minnesota North Stars, which they purchased that year. They had long wanted to bring hockey back to the Bay Area, and asked the NHL for permission to move the North Stars there in the late 1980s, but the league vetoed the proposed move. Meanwhile, a group led by former Hartford Whalers owner Howard Baldwin was pushing the NHL to bring a team to San Jose, where a new arena was being built. Eventually the league struck a compromise: the Gunds would sell their share of the North Stars to Baldwin’s group, with the Gunds receiving an expansion team in the Bay Area to begin play in the 1991 – 1992 season and being allowed to take a certain number of players from the North Stars to their new club. In return, the North Stars would be allowed to participate as an equal partner in an expansion draft with the new Bay Area team.

On May 5, 1990, the Gunds officially sold their share of the North Stars to Baldwin and were awarded a new team for the Bay Area, based in San Jose.

For their third season, 1993 – 1994, the Sharks moved to their current home, the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center at San Jose). The SAP Center at San Jose, originally San Jose Arena and formerly the Compaq Center at San Jose and HP Pavilion at San Jose is an American indoor arena, located in San Jose, California. Its primary tenant is the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League, and the arena has been nicknamed the Shark Tank as a result.

Following the 2001 – 2002 season, the Gunds sold the Sharks to a group of local investors headed by team president Greg Jamison.

San Jose Sports & Entertainment Enterprises (SJSEE) is a private company based in San Jose, California which owns the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League, the Worcester Sharks of the American Hockey League, and manages the SAP Center arena. The company was formed in 2002 after George Gund III put these assets up for sale; Gund requested then-Sharks president and CEO Greg Jamison to find a group of local investors to buy the team and keep them in San Jose.