Our Success and a Legacy

For a long time the capital of Silicon Valley, San Jose, California had everything it wanted except for sports entertainment you had to go to San Francisco (located about 60 miles north west from San Jose) to have a wonderful experience. So the city leaders were determined to bring professional sports to the city. San Francisco had the 49er professional football team and the San Francisco Giants, a professional baseball team. The Oakland Raiders, a professional football team were having problems in Oakland (located about 40 miles north of San Jose) and hinted on moving to the south bay as San Jose is locally called but the deal fell through.

The city of San Jose leaders were determined to bring a professional team to Silicon Valley and when the opportunity came for a hockey franchise to come to San Jose, in 1991 the city grabbed the opportunity and commissioned the building of the San Jose Arena (Picture Above).

Bids were sent out for construction accountants to oversee the construction, with the big six accounting firms putting in bids.  It was a surprise to everyone when GSO was selected by the city and the San Jose Sharks to provide the oversight for the project.  GSO was awarded a three year contract for the project. GSO provided the construction accounting, the cost controls, and compliance with internal controls in construction of a $165.6 million 20,000 seat world-class San Jose Arena.   The construction project was directed by both the owners, the San Jose Redevelopment Agency of the city of San Jose and the Arena Management Corporation (the NHL San Jose Sharks).  The engagement included providing cost controls and monitoring all project costs and comparing budgets costs to actual costs.  The cost analysis also included cost splits between the Agency and the Sharks.

Yes it was the first big time project for GSO with many following afterwards.  The San Jose Arena is now used for hockey, basketball, tennis and musical concerts.  Today the city of San Jose and the people of Silicon Valley are proud for building the Arena and so do we at GSO.