How San Jose landed a PWHL expansion team, and how the Sharks were involved

SAN JOSE – Jonathan Becher watched Olympic gold-medal-winning hockey player Kendall Coyne Schofield become the first woman to compete in the NHL All-Star Game's skills competition at SAP Center in 2019.

While the event itself was historic, Becher specifically remembers the sold-out crowd's raucous reaction.

"I turned and looked at the people I was sitting next to," Becher, president of Sharks Sports & Entertainment, said, alluding to Sharks owner Hasso Plattner and former general manager Doug Wilson, "and I said, ‘We've got to get a women’s hockey team here in San Jose.' "

Over seven years and multiple inquiries by SS&E later, San Jose has its own professional women’s team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, with the league officially announcing Tuesday that SAP Center will host the league's 12th team, starting this fall.

The announcement at the Shark Tank included speeches from San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and retired local sports icons in figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi and soccer star Brandi Chastain, both Olympic gold medalists and Bay Area natives. Sharks legend and Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Thornton also attended but did not speak.

“Here, we believe that women’s sports is not a hiccup, it’s not a charity, it’s not just OK, we’ll try it one time,” Chastain said. “No, we have believed in women’s sports for a long time.”

With an eye on attracting more corporate sponsors and growing its television audiences, the PWHL has added teams in Detroit, Las Vegas, and Hamilton, Ontario, bringing the total to 12 just this month.

The PWHL, which is owned and operated by TWG Global, felt San Jose would be a viable market for women's hockey, partly because of the city's mostly strong support for the NHL's Sharks and, more recently, the AHL's Barracuda.

But the league might not have considered San Jose and the Bay Area for expansion if the region had not already shown its affinity for women's sports.

The WNBA's Golden State Valkyries sold out all 22 regular-season home games during their inaugural season at Chase Center in 2025 and set WNBA records for average attendance (18,064) and total attendance (397,408). Bay FC, which began play in the NWSL in 2024, ranked fourth in average attendance last season (14,823).

The PWHL this season set a new record, averaging over 9,200 fans per game.

The PWHL does not yet have a nickname for the San Jose team, and it remains unclear when a general manager will be in place, although expansion teams in Detroit and Las Vegas recently announced GM hires.

The San Jose team’s official colors are blue, orange, and white, and the PWHL began accepting $50 deposits for season tickets on Tuesday morning. By midday Tuesday, Scheer said close to 2,000 had been received, exceeding expectations.

"When you look at where you want to be, and you look at how this market has supported women’s sports, and how the Valkyries have just blossomed, and now Bay FC, you want to be part of that," said Amy Scheer, PWHL executive vice president of business operations. "It’s really cool to see women celebrated, and to see the stadiums full. It was definitely a factor in wanting to come here and be part of the community."

The PWHL also looked at what San Jose had to offer in terms of playing at an NHL Arena, with a spacious practice facility at Sharks Ice already home to the Sharks’ and Barracuda’s training facilities.

"You look at the hockey community here, you look at what the Sharks have done, you look at the facilities," Scheer said. "When we talk about where we want our players to play, we want them to have great infrastructure, we want them to have a great practice facility, we want them to have a first-class arena, and San Jose has all those things.

"It’s a great place to live, the support of the fans, it has all the things we want for our league and for our players."

Becher said the Sharks had previously inquired about helping to bring a women's hockey team to San Jose, and years ago reached out to the now-defunct NWHL. Becher said they were told the league was focused mainly on the Northeast U.S. and Eastern Canada and not yet interested in California expansion.

Becher said the Sharks kept asking the PWHL, which began play in 2024, about getting a team in San Jose, including before the league expanded from its original six teams to eight prior to the 2025-26 season, when it added Seattle and Vancouver.

The PWHL now has four teams in the Pacific Time Zone, expanding its footprint westward with San Jose being the first California-based team.

"Every year we’ve said, let us know when you’re ready for California," Becher said. "We think we can support it. When they expanded by two teams last year, we raised our hands and put in a bid, and (the league said) we’re not quite ready for California yet.

"So when this expansion came up, we thought we had a really good shot."

Becher said San Jose's official inclusion in the PWHL came together just recently.

Reports indicated that the PWHL has been eyeing Los Angeles as the league's point of entry into California. But San Jose's bid - led by the Sharks – was stronger, as the PWHL whittled its list of bidders to a smaller group that they wanted to have final four conversations with.

Submitting a bid, Becher said, involved filling out a long questionnaire and clarifying any questions that the league may have. PWHL officials also toured the SAP Center and Sharks Ice, both of which are undergoing renovations.

Everything materialized in rapid succession after that.

"This came together pretty quickly," Becher said. "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."

Becher said arranging the arena's schedule to accommodate the Sharks, the PWHL team, plus concerts at the 33-year-old arena will be a challenge.

"It’ll be a bit of a Jenga game," Becher said, "but 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 (doubleheader), but we’ll try to avoid those when we can, and we’ll figure it out."

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This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 7:22 PM.