PWHL San Jose Video: Sharks President Talks Women’s Hockey

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:

Q: What are the initial reactions of the community that you’ve seen, and how exciting is it for you as just another big fan of the sport expanding here to San Jose?

A: I sort of hinted at it on stage, which is, we’ve been hoping for this since before 2019. But 2019 was really the sort of, we got to get this done. The league itself has only really been around for three years. They did the last expansion a year ago, where they only grew by two teams. We put our hat in the bucket [and] it didn’t quite work out. This time, they said they might do two or four teams. Frankly, I was a little worried that if they only do two teams, they might not make it to California as well. When it was four, I was pretty confident.

We’ve been hounding them for a long time, but they’ve been great to deal with. I think the biggest issue for us was, we’re also in the middle, as everyone knows, of a major construction of the building. So it was really like, well, how do we make room for them, and for the Sharks, and for all the events, because it’s one of the busiest buildings. But fan sentiment, I don’t know if you guys are social, I kind of am a little bit, has been overwhelming. Their deposits are already over the roof. I’m not supposed to tell you the number, but it’s well above their expectations. This is going to be great for hockey and great for San Jose.

They told me a number, we’re already above that.

Q: What is the backstory of the team colors, blue and orange? Was there a hope for PWHL San Jose to match the San Jose Sharks?

A: For those who don’t know, one of the unusual things about the PWHL is it’s centrally run, centrally owned, centrally controlled, so the PWHL made the color choice, not us. I think they intentionally wanted to give the team a little bit of its own identity. If they just used teal, I think it might be a little bit too close to the Sharks, but orange was a color for the Sharks for many years, so it gives homage to what we’ve done as well. The blue is very San Jose. Between San Jose State, the ocean, et cetera, so it’s close but not too close. I’m a big fan of the color scheme, but they chose it.”

Q: Does the team having its own identity eliminate the chance for Hammerheads to become the team name?

A: I don’t get to choose the name. I’ve seen some of the short list, and Hammerheads is definitely on there. Don’t know if that’s what they’re going to choose or not, though.

Q: Does the success of Bay FC and Valkyries help the PWHL make the decision to expand to the SF Bay Area?

A: It’s certainly one of the factors, but women’s hockey is having its own moment around North America. I think you know, even if the Valkyries and Bay FC hadn’t come to the Bay Area, I think we were in line to get a team as well. But when you look at it and go, well, they’ve both been really successful, and women’s hockey is growing, it’s just icing on the cake, so to speak.

Q: How do you plan to handle the scheduling of events at the SAP Center with two teams?

A: Scheduling isn’t going to be easy. There weren’t really a lot of sticking points during the negotiation. This came together pretty quickly. I mean, it’s four years of discussion, and then two and a half weeks of actually trying to figure out the logistics to get this done. So, when people say it came together quickly, it came together really quickly. The team starts playing this December, as you heard. We don’t know yet. We need an NHL schedule first. This will be an NHL first building. We have 100+ other events there; it’ll be a bit of a Jenga game. We did it a few years ago when the Barracuda played in this building, so we know we can do that. There will probably be the occasional double day, but we’ll try to avoid those when we can. We’ll figure it out.

Q: Will there be mostly games on the weekends?

A: Sure, that they’ll want to play some of the weekend, but my understanding is the PWHL has a national media deal that actually encourages Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Although the San Jose Sharks are often on Tuesdays, so we’ll figure that out. I’m not too worried about it. The style of negotiation we’ve done so far has been very collaborative. So it’s finding the right dates.

Q: With the season starting in December, challenging the NBA and NFL could be hard. Are you worried about reaching new fans because of that?

A: I don’t think it’ll be that crowded. Most of the PWHL games will be, unless the football team goes on a deep run, will be done after the football team, because they start early December, right? Most of their season is January and February. American football is usually over by then, but more hockey breeds more hockey. I mean, the Sharks are obviously up and running. I think that got people more interested in hockey in general. That will bring new fans to the sports. I think there’s a lot of synergy there, so their projections look pretty good. I think they’ll reach them.

Q: How much construction is being done for PWHL San Jose at SAP Center and at Sharks Ice?

A: I think some of the details of where they’re going to be here, and there will be unveiled later on this summer and next year, but yes, they’ll have their own identity over at Sharks Ice and share some facilities here. The good news is, I think most of you know, we’re re-imagining. Yes, I’ll use my own word. This arena floor and the locker room situation, so we have some time to build it out to make sure it’s suitable for them as well. The first year will be a little more difficult. In fact, that’s what slowed this down, just because we’re in the middle of some construction, but ultimately, we get through this, and it’ll be in good shape.

Q: How connected are the San Jose Sharks and PWHL San Jose?

A: Officially, they’re a tenant in our building, and so they’re self-run and operate. But we’ll help them out quite a bit. Help them get off the ground. They’re going to use some of our employees for certain things, some of our part-time labor as well, and so it’s, it’s not arm’s length difference, but yet they are a separate organization making their own decisions.

Q: Is there a plan to add something to the arena that is PWHL-focused?

A: Lots of discussions like that are underway. Nothing to announce right now.

Q: Los Angeles has often been the entry point for sports into California. What does it mean to have San Jose be the entry point for the PWHL?

A: We’re really proud of that, particularly to say that it’s a San Jose-based team that says San Jose, fill in the blank, because I don’t know what the name is just yet. Not a more generic name, Nor Cal, or something else like that. It says a lot that the first outpost for women’s hockey, 100-plus years ago, was here in Northern California, and now it is again.