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SHARKS STYLING IN PIMPIN’ JET - Dec. 1, 2010 – John Grigg
NHL PLAYERS ARE travelling men, taking their shows on the road around North America. And absolutely, it can be wearing. Some teams, however, cushion the impact, literally and figuratively. Take the San Jose Sharks. In 2009-10, they upgraded their transportation and now fly in high style.
“It’s very, very spacious,” said Ryan Stenn, the Sharks media relations and team services coordinator. “It seats a total of 54, but it’s a gigantic plane so there’s a ton of space to walk around freely.”
The plane is a Boeing B727-200. It reaches speeds of up to 500 miles per hour and can fly coast-to-coast without refueling, which means it gets the Sharks home from a game in Detroit in less than five hours, depending on wind currents and weather.
And in case they run into bad weather or other delays, not to worry, the Sharks also have 15 exemptions per calendar year that allow them to fly into Mineta San Jose International Airport after regular hours.
It’s all part of the agreement the plane’s former primary passengers – the Arena Football League’s San Jose SaberCats – had worked out. The SaberCats were owned by Fry’s Electronics, which owns the plane as well; the Sharks are leasing it.
Stenn described the plane’s forward lounge as a place for teammates to gather. It includes a round table and chairs for card games and eight additional leather recliner chairs that basically turn into day beds, in case someone needs to take a load off. The rear of the plane is all first-class seating.
There are monitors throughout the entire plane that the team can watch TV, movies or game film on and a complete package of stewards and stewardesses to make sure everyone is completely comfortable.
The food on the plane is also catered and made to ensure everything offered fits in with the nutritional needs of the athletes.
“We bring tons of food in, it’s top-notch,” Stenn said. “Our strength and conditioning coach, Mike Potenza, coordinates all the meals everywhere we go.”
The exterior of course is nothing to sneeze at. There is a big Sharks logo on the tail that lights up to let everyone know who’s coming.
“It’s very, very first class; very luxurious,” Stenn said. “It’s unlike any other plane I’ve been on.”