PRUDENTIAL CENTER

: ''This article is about the sports arena in Newark, New Jersey. For the Boston, Massachusetts complex, see Prudential Tower.
The 'Prudential Center' (nicknamed 'The Rock'^[2]) is an 18,000-seat multi-purpose arena being built in Newark, New Jersey for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League. The arena is designed by HOK Sport, with the exterior designed by Morris Adjmi Architects. Construction of the arena is expected to be finished by early October 2007, in time for the 2007-08 NHL season. The arena will also be home to the New Jersey Ironmen, a Major Indoor Soccer League expansion team which will begin play in the 2007-08 MISL season, as well as the Seton Hall University Men's Basketball team, and will be available for selected Seton Hall Women's basketball games as well. ^[3] Arena ownership has claimed that 40-60 additional events are booked for its first year of use.
The arena will be located a couple of blocks from Newark Penn Station in downtown Newark. A new park named Triangle Park will connect the train station to the arena, making it easily accessible via New Jersey Transit, PATH, Newark Light Rail, and Amtrak.
The Prudential Center will be the first major league sports venue to open in the New York City metropolitan area since Continental Airlines Arena, the Devils' former home, opened in 1981. The arena will play an important role in the revitalization of Newark.^[4]

Contents

History

Features

Naming rights

References

See also

External links

History

Groundbreaking for the arena began on October 3, 2005.
On Tuesday, January 24, 2006, the Devils submitted a guarantee in writing that the team will contribute $100 million to the arena, ^[5] one day after the city and state threatened to cancel the project. ^[6]
The arena was originally intended to be the home of the New Jersey Nets, but YankeeNets has since sold the team and the Nets are expected to move to Brooklyn, New York. With their impending relocation, Continental Airlines Arena was planned for demolition to make room for the Meadowlands Xanadu project. However, the site for the Xanadu project has been moved to another area of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, and the New Jersey Nets have extended their lease at the Meadowlands through at least 2010^[7], due to complications involving the team's proposed move to Brooklyn's Barclays Center. This will leave two arenas in New Jersey competing with each other to book concerts and family shows. State officials, though, have called for the Continental Airlines Arena to close once the Prudential Center opens. Although the Nets extended their lease at the Continental Airlines Arena, Devils ownership has offered a public invitation for the NBA team to be a tenant in Newark. A Nets' move to Newark does not seem likely, unless the planned relocation to Brooklyn ultimately fails.
The arena will open on October 25 2007 with a series of concerts by New Jersey rock group Bon Jovi, featuring a star-studded lineup of opening acts, including Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, Daughtry, The All-American Rejects and New Jersey's own My Chemical Romance.^[8] The first two concerts will be followed by the first Devils home game on October 27 against the Ottawa Senators, who were the Devils' last opponent at Continental Airlines Arena.^[9]
UFC will hold an event at the arena on November 17.^[10]
In November 2007, the Center will host the semifinals and finals of college basketball's Legends Classic.^[11]

Features

The Prudential Center is the first new arena to be built in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area in more than 25 years.^[12] As such, the Prudential Center will be one of the most accessible arenas in North America.⁴ Its proximity to Newark Penn Station will allow fans to travel to the arena by NJ Transit, PATH, Newark Light Rail and Amtrak trains.¹² Newark Penn Station will be connected to the arena's Triangle Park by the Ironbound Bridge, giving commuting fans direct access from the station to the arena.¹² The Prudential Center is also very close to several major highways, including Rt. 78, Rt. 1&9, Rt. 280, Rt. 21, Rt. 22, Garden State Parkway, and New Jersey Turnpike.¹² Newark city buses will also run with stops at Prudential Center. In comparison, the Devils' previous home, Continental Airlines Arena was accessible mostly by the New Jersey Turnpike and Rt. 3.
Fans approaching the arena through Triangle Park will be presented with a view of the arena's externally mounted 4,800 square foot LED screen, one of the largest in the world.¹² Along the Mulberry Street entrance on the arena's east side are two large "entrance cylinders" at the two adjoining corners; they are the arena's most prominent exterior feature.⁴ The interior Grand Concourse provides views of downtown Newark on the Broad Street and Mulberry Street sides through large windows. Accessible from the Grand Concourse is the Devils' new 2,600 square foot Team Store.¹² The Prudential Center will feature separate concourses for the lower and upper levels, unlike Continental Airlines Arena, which cramped fans from upper and lower seating locations into one lower level concourse.

As the newest facility to be used in the NHL, the Prudential Center will have feature a large array of amenities.⁴ The rink area will feature four LED ribbons and an eight-sided scoreboard equipped with high-definition video screens.¹² The 78 luxury suites available⁴ will be the largest in North America.⁴ Personal dining, WiFi and high-definition televisions are some of the many conveniences available in luxury suites.⁴ In the lower bowl are 2,300 black Club seats in three center sections on either side of the ice.¹² Club seat and season ticket holders will have access to a 350-seat restaurant with views of the rink.¹² Additionally, the Goal Bar, located at Suite Level One will offer Club and Goal Bar seat holders terrace-style seating in a bar environment.¹² Club seat holders will also have access to the Fire and Ice Lounges, modern themed private bars intended to attract pre-game and post-game crowds.⁴
Attached to the Prudential Center will be the Devils' corporate offices and practice rink, complete with its own locker rooms. This will make the Prudential Center one of only two NHL arenas with a practice rink and the only one with dual locker rooms and practice facilities.^[13]

Naming rights

Prudential Financial purchased the naming rights in January 2007 for $105.3 million over 20 years, opting to call the arena the ''Prudential Center'', though this is also the name of numerous office complexes around the country, notably in Boston, Massachusetts. Arena press releases have begun to refer to the Prudential Center as "The Rock" after Prudential's corporate logo. This will be the first sports venue in the NYC area to be called a "Center", a designation used since the 1990s, usually associated with corporate sponsorship.^[14]

References

1. http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=286824&page=NewsPage&service=page NHL.com
2. Seton Hall Moves to the Rock Matt Sweeney
3. http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1167895210258100.xml&coll=3&thispage=2
4. Prudential Center Promotional Video
5. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--devilsarena0124jan24,0,6821656.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey
6. http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2303214
7. http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/113955034914760.xml&coll=1
8. http://bonjovi.aeglive.com/news/article17.html
9. http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/118412796777830.xml&coll=1
10. http://www.ufcdaily.com/2007/06/01/deal-nearly-complete-to-bring-ufc-back-to-new-jersey/
11. http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20070612_ap_prudentialcentertohostcollegehoopstournamentinnovember.html

12. Prudential Center Brochure
13. Prudential Center's Practice Rink
14. http://www.newjerseydevils.com/2005/html/theteam/teamnews/prudential010807.php

See also

★ Red Bull Park, a soccer stadium in Harrison, New Jersey for the Red Bull New York soccer team, under construction

★ Barclays Center, a proposed arena in Brooklyn for the current New Jersey Nets

★ Citi Field, a baseball stadium in Queens for the New York Mets, under construction

★ New Yankee Stadium, a baseball stadium in The Bronx for the New York Yankees, under construction

★ New Meadowlands Stadium, a proposed football stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey for the New York Giants and New York Jets.

★ West Side Stadium, a failed proposal for a stadium and business complex over the MTA's ''Hudson Yards''

External links

★ Prudential Center Home Page

★ $100M letter of credit from Devils clears way for Newark arena

★ City Unveils Model of Newark/Devils Arena

★ Newark Breaks Ground for Devils Arena

★ Economic and legal analysis of the Newark arena project (''Shelterforce'' Magazine)

★ February 2007 video interview from the Prudential Center construction site