Dallas Stars: Recapping A Visit To The Shark Tank In San Jose

On Sunday night, I did something that I had never done before: attend a Dallas Stars game away from the AAC. I watched them drop a 5-1 decision to the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center. Here’s what I learned not from the game, but from my experience, about the SJ hockey community.

Have you ever thought about seeing a different walk of life when it comes to the NHL? Chances are that if you have been a Dallas Stars fan for more than a season, you have experienced at least one game in-person.

But have you gone on the road?

This past Sunday, a friend and I visited San Jose, California. As part of a small spring break trip, I headed west with the main intent of seeing the Stars take on the Sharks at the SAP Center.

Upon arrival on Saturday afternoon, one thing was evident: the city of San Jose LOVES their hockey team. Whether it was a sign in a window, a license plate frame, or a bumper sticker, you didn’t go far through the city without seeing some Sharks reference. And don’t even get me started on the clothes. It seemed as though every person had something Sharks-related on their person.

Dallas Stars

The Sharks had played on that Saturday afternoon and had lost 3-1 to the Nashville Predators. But it didn’t bother them. They stayed in their gear and embraced their team. At around 4 p.m. the fans began to flood out of the SAP Center. They went their various directions, but offered a consistent flow of Sharks pride that seemed to never end.

Being in a green “Benn/Seguin ’16” shirt and walking the streets of downtown, I expected at least a little bit of ribbing from the locals. But that didn’t happen. Instead, they were extremely kind and inquisitive, asking if I was in town for the game and if I was from Dallas. Some also wanted to know what exactly it was that caused the Stars to drop off this season.

When it came to the night of the game, I began walking from my hotel over to the game. Besides running into two other Stars fans, I was enveloped into a sea of teal and black. As we walked to the SAP Center, I got more of the same questions from the day before.

It was clear that they had a lot of pride in their team, but more on that later.

The SAP Center itself is vastly different from the American Airlines Center. It holds 17,496, which is just about a thousand less than the AAC. When you initially enter the arena, you go up a staircase that leads you to the only level in the stadium. There are two decks, and both can be accessed from the ground level.

The arena, as you probably guessed, is laid out as a giant circle.

But what I thought was the coolest part of the arena was the low roof. At the AAC, the roof is in the convex shape and bubbles out. At the SAP Center, the roof is practically flat. In other words, it traps and rebounds sound a lot better.