page_title: Meadowlands Arena
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Meadowlands Arena / History
context_page_description: Meadowlands Arena is an inactive indoor venue located in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The arena is located on New Jersey Route 120 and is across the highway from MetLife Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack and located next to the American Dream shopping and entertainment complex.
  The arena was originally built to accommodate a move of the New York Nets basketball team to New Jersey and opened in 1981. In 1982, the Colorado Rockies hockey team joined the Nets in the new building and became known as the New Jersey Devils. The Nets and Devils were joined by the Seton Hall Pirates men's collegiate basketball program in 1985.
  In 2007, the Prudential Center opened in nearby Newark and the New Jersey Devils moved out. Seton Hall, whose campus in South Orange is closer to Newark than East Rutherford, followed and moved their basketball games there. The Nets remained for three more seasons before moving to Newark, where they played two seasons before departing New Jersey for Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The men's basketball team from Fordham University played four home games during the 2010–11 season at the arena.
context_section_description: Construction on a new arena across Route 20 (now 120) from Giants Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack began in 1977, with the arena's initial purpose being to serve as the primary home for the Nets who had moved from Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York to New Jersey. While the venue was being built, the Nets played their home games in Piscataway at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
  The arena was designed by Grad Partnership and Dilullo, Clauss, Ostroki & Partners and was constructed at a cost of $85 million. Originally named after the sitting governor of New Jersey, Brendan Byrne, the arena opened July 2, 1981, with the first of six concerts by New Jersey rock musician Bruce Springsteen. The Nets moved into their new home on October 30, 1981, and lost to their cross-river rivals, the New York Knicks in their inaugural home game. In 1982, the arena hosted the NBA All-Star Game. Then, it hosted the 1996 NBA draft.
  Another motivation for building an arena in the Meadowlands was to potentially lure a National Hockey League team to New Jersey. Governor Byrne was a member of an ownership group that was looking to do so, and in 1978 businessman Arthur Imperatore purchased the Colorado Rockies and announced that he would be relocating the team to New Jersey. The newly-renamed New Jersey Devils played their first game at the arena on October 5, 1982, against the Pittsburgh Penguins, with the game ending in a 3–3 tie. Don Lever scored the first goal in the arena, which was the Devils' very first goal. In 1984, the arena hosted the NHL All-Star Game. The following year, the Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball team began playing at the arena.
  On January 4, 1996, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) announced a naming rights deal with Continental Airlines under which the airline, with a hub at nearby Newark Liberty International Airport, would pay the NJSEA $29 million over 12 years. As Continental Airlines Arena, it hosted the 1996 Final Four—the last Final Four to date that has been held in an arena specifically built for basketball.
  In September 2006, the Nets and the NJSEA announced an extension of their lease to keep the team in the Meadowlands until 2013, with a provision to leave as early as 2009 if the Brooklyn arena was completed. It was reported at the time that the Nets' owner, Bruce Ratner was seeking to sell the Nets, thus thwarting any possible move to Brooklyn.
  On May 5, 2007, the Devils played their last game at the arena, losing 3–2 to the Ottawa Senators, eliminating them from the Eastern Conference semifinals 4–1. Scott Gomez scored the final goal in the building. The Devils subsequently relocated to the newly constructed Prudential Center in nearby Newark at the beginning of the 2007–08 NHL season.
  Following the Devils' final season at the arena in 2007, Continental Airlines opted out of the naming rights agreement and the NJSEA signed an agreement with Izod for five years. The company paid $1.4 million per year for the first two years of the agreement; when the Nets left, it dropped to $750,000 per year for the balance of the five-year deal. The columns of the arena's exterior were also repainted red as the arena assumed a new color scheme.
  In 2009, Newark mayor Cory Booker and Devils owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek called for the closing of the Izod Center, because it was a competing venue to the Prudential Center for events, and a "drain on taxpayers." In October 2009, a deal was brokered for the Nets to play at the Prudential Center for two seasons, beginning in the 2010–11 NBA season. The deal also included a partnership with the Prudential Center hosting sporting events (Devils, Nets, Seton Hall), and the Izod Center handling concerts and family shows. The two arenas proposed a joint venture, Jersey Presents LLC, to wrestle leverage from promoters who had been playing the two against each other. "You can’t have two venues that close together fighting each other and have that be productive for the state," said Jerry Zaro, economic czar to former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, who brokered the dea
caption: In 1996, Continental Airlines purchased naming rights to the Brendan Byrne Arena. This picture shows the arena's signage under that name.
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