San José’s HP Pavilion to get major upgrade

The HP Pavilion in San José, CA, will receive a number of major facility enhancements under a tentative agreement between the City of San José and Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment (SVSE), the organization that owns HP Pavilion’s main tenant, the San José Sharks NHL franchise, and controls operations at the arena. The upgrades will enhance the experience of the roughly 1.75 million people who attend sporting events, concerts, family shows and other events at the HP Pavilion each year.

Under the proposed agreement, signage around the interior of the pavilion will be upgraded with LED displays (as well as a new center scoreboard), the sound system and acoustics will be enhanced and the video system will be upgraded to support HD video.

Since the opening of the pavilion in 1993, 23 newer NHL arenas have been built in North America, making the HP Pavilion one of the oldest. The tentative agreement calls for the $16.5 million cost of the improvements to be shared equally by the city and SVSE, with the city costs paid out of the annual proceeds received from the pavilion agreement.