by Larry Leavitt

SAN JOSE–The Shark Tank is owned by the City of San Jose partially and the city is putting $1.4 million into fixing it up this year. I have met many, many, fans and members of the media who come from out of town and their very satisfied with that venue. SAP Center has held up well over the years in fact I had a chance to talk to former Shark Jeff Odgers about it last season and Odgers said he can’t believe how well the building has been maintained.

The number one reason why the Sharks are interested in moving out of SAP Center is they want more seats to get more revenue. Their limited to 17,562 and being limited to 17,562 that’s your limit there is no room. If they want more revenue, the Sharks sell out every game, this is the way to do it.

Levis Stadium and Great America for a new Sharks arena in Santa Clara would be right next door to San Jose but they still would have their TV contract issues that will not go away. The Mission Bay arena in San Francisco will be a concern as the Sharks season will overlap with the Golden State Warriors. You could take out the floor and have ice but there’s a lot of scheduling conflicts.

Seattle would be a phenomenal place to have a hockey team whether the Sharks move there or not a team from somewhere eventually should. Vancouver is the closest hockey team to Seattle and they sell out every single game. The Canadian fans would even drive down to see a game in Seattle.

The Sharks not to mention are in line to get an outdoor game either at AT&T Park or at Levis Stadium for the NHL Winter Classic. I got to think if I was in the NHL through all this termoil and problems would the NHL want to spotlight the Sharks in an outdoor game on national TV?

I’d love to sit down with San Jose Sharks CEO John Tortora who started last year and he came from the NHL and has NHL background experience in the New York Office and he was in the media department there. So Tortora knows a little about the media.

Last season Tortora came to the Sharks and became the new CEO and Tortora has been a very busy and not only is Tortora dealing with the team that lost four straight but to the now Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings he’s got a General Manger Doug Wilson who says he’s going to rebuild the team.

They just signed a couple of their unrestricted free agents in Mike Brown and Alex Stalock and now the story that came out this week about possibly wanting to move the team and also getting rid of their long time TV analyst and fan favorite Drew Remenda a very popular talent. It’s kind of amazing to me that the fan base is upset to begin with the way the team lost being booted out of the playoffs after being up 3-0.

There’s a lot of rumors about trading Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau alot of talk on twitter and social media about yes, no, maybe, go, and now they sign two players one very well received Stalock and Brown and then they fire one of their most favorite talents on TV and then managaement comes out with “you know what we got the shaft on this TV deal.”

If you look at the TV deal it’s $7 million a year which even I would think is pretty good but when you compare it to Toronto or Detroit who are receiving $41 million and it was Philadelphia with $21 million a year. The Sharks TV wise got the shaft and their on the hook for 14 more years with this current contract. It was the Sharks previous owner who negotiated this current deal that agreed upon one season before Tortora got to San Jose.

If you sign a long term contract you need to honor that long term contract in my opinion and if that long term contract is signed by another CEO of the Sharks he was in charge (Greg Jamison) he signed the contract you don’t have a choice you should honor that. Now Tortora is complaining that its not enough. Well it isn’t enough, but that’s the bed that was made and the Sharks will have to sleep in it.

Larry Leavitt does commentary on the NHL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com