HP Pavilion’s success fulfilled everyone’s dreams

HP Pavilion has recently received international recognition as one of the top arenas in the world. Pollstar magazine ranks the facility as the seventh leading arena in the world based on a total of 464,214 tickets sold for concerts and family shows, a measure of how an arena serves its community beyond its obvious role as a sports venue. This puts HP Pavilion in an exclusive group. New York’s Madison Square Garden ranks first, and our building ranks between Sydney, Australia’s SuperDome and TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.

Congratulations are in order to Jim Goddard and the staff of HP Pavilion and Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment for the outstanding job they have done in running and marketing the city’s most popular building. I don’t think any of the building’s original supporters would express surprise that a high quality sports and entertainment venue has experienced such a great level of success in this market.

Clearly the millions in city money spent on the now 13-year-old HP Pavilion was a wise investment in our city’s future. Today even the most die-hard opponent of the 1988 ballot measure approving construction would have to admit that the building has been a terrific addition to San Jose.

Please continue reading about sports in San Jose.

Dean Munro
Executive Director

The Sports Authority’s REACH Youth Scholarship Program will celebrate its 10th anniversary May 3 when NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott hosts the annual awards breakfast at the San Jose Marriott.

Thirty-three Santa Clara County high school students have submitted essays describing how they overcame personal adversity through their participation in high school sports. The winning essays will be selected by a panel of judges. REACH stands for Recognizing Excellence, Adversity, Courage and Hard work.

A total of $10,000 in scholarships will be awarded at the breakfast, presented by Bridge Bank. All nominees will receive a gift.

In the wake of the enormously successful Amgen Tour of California cycling race in February, the San Jose City Council has honored Robert Colarossi, managing director of AEG Cycling, which staged the week-long event.

An estimated 1.3 million spectators saw parts of the race down the California coast including 50,000 in San Jose, the only city on the race route with two days of competition.

Pat Tillman, the San Jose native who abandoned his NFL career to serve with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and was killed in battle, will be honored by Pat’s Run on Sunday, April 30, at Leland High School, where he began his football career.

The 4.2-mile run / walk and .42-mile kid’s run commemorate the number he wore as a Leland and Arizona State football star. Proceeds from the race benefit the Pat Tillman Foundation, which was established to inspire others to follow Tillman’s example of self-improvement and involvement in society.

Tillman was inducted posthumously into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

A spirited crowd of Irish-Americans and Irish-American wannabes turned out last month in San Jose Civic Auditorium to celebrate the start of Irish Week 2006 with the Ireland vs. California boxing matches. But it was the real Irish contingent, which included Catherine Byrne, Lord Mayor of Dublin, who got the better of the evening.

Irish boxers won nine of the 12 Olympic-style amateur bouts. The California victors were Max Becerra of Vacaville at 125 pounds, Gabriel Cavazos of Redwood City at 141 pounds and Stan Martyniouk of Sacramento at 132 pounds.

Former Olympic and Stanford water polo goalkeeper Chris Dorst is the new chairman of the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors. Dorst, who succeeds Amy Love in that position, was a two-time Cardinal All-American, named to the 1980 U.S. Olympic team for the Moscow Games, which the United States boycotted, and played in the ’84 Los Angeles Games, winning a silver medal. He has served on the U.S. Olympic Committee’s board and on its Athletes Advisory Council.

In addition, Teal Sewards replaces Richard Kilwien as the Santa Clara University representative on the board, Carl Reed replaces Ray Purpur as the Stanford University representative and Liz Grumet replaces Aubrey Merriman as the representative from Special Olympics.

The Hall is a project of the Sports Authority and will induct its 12th class of inductees at a dinner and ceremony at HP Pavilion in November. Bronze plaques recognizing the achievements of the 54 past inductees are located on the main concourse of HP Pavilion.

Stanford, the Pac-10 Conference champion and 10th-ranked nationally, will host the 2006 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics West Regional at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 8 in Maples Pavilion … Sit in a special Olympic section at AT&T Park and see the Giants play the Houston Astros on Tuesday, April 11 at Olympic Night at the Giants. Current and former Olympians including some from the recent Turin Winter Olympics will be honored in pre-game ceremonies … USA Wrestling’s California State Championships, which will honor the late Olympian Dave Schultz of Palo Alto, will be held in the McEnery Convention Center May 12-14. The competition includes the Kids and Cadet freestyle, junior fila men’s Greco-Roman and freestyle, and junior fila women’s freestyle state championships … The first combined NCAA Division I Men’s & Women’s Tennis Championships will be played May 18-29 in Stanford’s Taube Tennis Center. The Cardinal has won 32 titles in the last 33 years.