Voters narrowly approved local taxes for a downtown arena on June 7, 1988. The NHL awarded San Jose a team in 1990, and the Sharks began play in the 1991-92 season at the Cow Palace before moving into the new San Jose Arena in 1993. The building has since been called the Compaq Center, HP Pavilion and, since 2013, SAP Center, but to fans it is the Shark Tank.
The Sharks won the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best regular season in 2008-09 and reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2016. In 2001 the city’s SharkByte public art show placed decorated shark sculptures around town, later auctioned for charity.