SAP Center Guide: Parking, Bag Policy, Doors and Getting There
Your night at the Shark Tank, counted down from when you should leave the house.
You're going to the Tank! Good. Great. Honestly it might be the best building in the Bay Area to watch a game, and with Macklin Celebrini out there now, it's finally fun again. So let's do this as a countdown, because that's how I do game night, starting from when you should be leaving the house.
Pick how you're getting there
SAP Center's at 525 W. Santa Clara St. in downtown San Jose, and the reason I love it is the train. San Jose Diridon station's right across the street. Caltrain, ACE, Capitol Corridor and Amtrak all stop there, and VTA light rail has stops at Diridon and at San Fernando and Delmas. If you're on the Peninsula, in the East Bay or out in the Valley, you can get to a Sharks game without touching a freeway. Try doing that at most arenas in this country.
Parking opens
If you've got to drive, the big lot next to the arena has about 1,500 spots, and you get in from Santa Clara or Julian. There are more than 3,000 more within a third of a mile. Lots usually open two hours before the event. General parking in the main lot's limited, so if you don't have a pass, they may send you off site. Heads up: Caltrain permits don't work when the arena's running the lots. And no tailgating, sorry, that's a hard no here.
Doors
For Sharks games on weeknights, doors open 60 minutes before puck drop, or 75 if you're a Sharks 365 member. For Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday and holiday games, it's 75 minutes, or 90 for members. Get in early if you can and watch warmups down by the glass. Yes, every time. I don't care how old you are.
Your bag
Good news, this isn't Levi's. Anything up to 5 by 9 by 2 inches gets through fast. Bigger bags are okay up to 20 by 14 by 11, but they get X rayed and you'll wait. Bigger than that and you're not getting in, and there's no bag check and no lockers. Medical and diaper bags are fine at any size.
Get loud
The team skates out through the giant shark head and the place goes nuts. I've seen it a million times. It still works on me. The building holds 17,435 for hockey, opened in 1993, and it's had a bunch of names, San Jose Arena, Compaq Center, HP Pavilion, but we've always just called it the Shark Tank.
Last call comes early
Alcohol sales stop with 10 minutes left in the third, and you can only buy two at a time. They'll card you if you look 40 or younger, which I've decided to take as a compliment. There's no re entry, so don't step out.
Bring it
- A credit card (cash isn't really the move here)
- One sealed water bottle
- Reasonable outside food, at Sharks games only
- A sign up to 20 by 30 inches, no stick
- A Sharks flag
- Your voice
Leave it
- Cans, glass and thermoses
- Hard coolers
- Air horns and laser pens
- Selfie sticks, tripods and drones
- Balloons
- Your outside booze
Kids two and up need their own ticket, by the way, and for concerts the rules change: no outside food or drink at all, not even water. So check before you go if you're not there for hockey. If you've got an empty reusable bottle, you can fill it at Section 117.
And the Sharks signed on to stay here through 2051, with about $425 million going into the building. So all of this is going to get better, and I get to keep going to the Tank for the rest of my life.
How great is that?
Who's dressing tonight? The Sharks depth chart has it. The whole year's on the schedule hub, and if you want the full story of this team and every playoff run we've suffered through, I've got you. Everything else is on the Sharks hub.
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