The NHL ice hockey league has announced that the 2019 edition of its All-Star Game will be held at SAP Center, home of the San Jose Sharks.
The event will be held on January 27 next year and will be preceded by the All-Star Skills Competition on the January 26.
It will mark the first time that San Jose has hosted the NHL All-Star Game since 1997. SAP Center opened in 1993 and has a capacity of 17,500 for ice hockey fixtures.
“It’s very big for San Jose to land the All-Star Game simply for our fans,” Sharks president John Tortora told NHL.com. “I’ve been with the Sharks now for seven years, and so many fans come up to me and still talk about the 1997 All-Star Game. The SAP Center opened in 1993, so to bring the game back after 22 years is long overdue and it’s primarily for our fans to celebrate the great game of hockey.”
The game will mark at least the third major NHL event to be hosted by the Sharks since 2015, with the team serving as the home team for the 2015 Stadium Series at Levi’s Stadium, and facing the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final.
“We anticipate hopefully another Stanley Cup Final in between, so that’s not done yet,” Tortora said. “It’s a great string of events that we’re having.
“Our fans have a very deep connection to hockey, to the Sharks and to the city of San Jose. There’s a lot of civic pride in the city so for us to deliver this type of event for the city and the economic impact it will have is outstanding.”
This year’s NHL All-Star Game took place on Sunday at Amalie Arena, home of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Image: Guy Kawasaki
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