In the late 1980s, mayor Tom McEnery met with FAN, and subsequently a measure to allocate local taxes for arena construction came up for a public vote on June 7, 1988, passing by a narrow margin.

[14] In late April 2007, it was announced that the HP Pavilion at San Jose would be receiving several building improvements, including a new center-hung LED video display system from Daktronics similar to that of the TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins of the NHL.

[16][17] In April 2023, construction was announced on a new 10,000-square-foot penthouse lounge, with seven suites and three rows of regular seating being converted to accommodate the project.

[18] In 2006, SAP Center sold the most tickets (633,435) to non-sporting events of any venue in the Western United States, and the fourth highest total in the world, after Madison Square Garden in New York City (US), the Manchester Arena in Manchester (UK), and Scotiabank Arena in Toronto (Canada).

[19] Other events hosted at the arena include the 1996 United States Figure Skating Championships, the 47th National Hockey League All-Star Game in 1997, the 1999 NCAA Women's Final Four, ArenaBowl XVI in 2002, the 2007 USA Gymnastics Visa Championships, and UFC 139 on November 19, 2011.

[21] Prior to Super Bowl 50 in nearby Santa Clara, the arena housed introductory media activities for the event.

Royal Rumble (1998), SummerSlam (2001), The Great American Bash (2007), Payback (2017) took place where Braun Strowman defeated Roman Reigns in the main event.