San Jose Sharks COO John Tortora addresses Stadium Series

With the excitement surrounding the announcement of the San Jose Sharks hosting the Los Angeles Kings in a Stadium Series game in February, chief operating officer John Tortora held a press conference to address questions and concerns surrounding the game.

My favorite quote of the video is as follows:

"“It’s very important to us because we wanted to celebrate the game of hockey with our fan base. We’ve been here for 23 years in San Jose, and for much of the population 23 years ago, not many people knew about hockey. But hockey has grown here, our fan base has become very strong, very loyal and very passionate. And they’ve stayed with us through thick and thin. We want to use this opportunity and this game as a way to celebrate our fans. To give them something to show the rest of the hockey world as to how passionate and in to this sport they are.”"

Tortora has it right when he mentions that Northern California has grown exponentially in terms of a hockey fan base. People around the nation don’t believe California is as excited about hockey as say, the East coast is. But this will prove that those of us loyal fans here in the Bay Area are just as enthusiastic as others around the U.S. and Canada.