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The Meadowlands Arena (originally Brendan Byrne Arena, and formerly Continental Airlines Arena and Izod Center) is a multi-purpose arena in the Meadowlands Sports Complex, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. It opened in 1981 and currently has a maximum seating capacity of 20,000. It is primarily used for sports, concerts and other various shows and events.
It was formerly home to the New Jersey Nets of the NBA, the New Jersey Devils of the NHL, and the Seton Hall University Pirates men's basketball team. They moved to the Prudential Center, in nearby Newark (with the Nets later moving again to Barclays Center in Brooklyn).
Following the departure of all three of its major tenants, Izod Center served as more of a concert venue and general entertainment venue than a sporting venue. The state-owned facility reported losses for 2013, and was projected to have $8.5 million in losses for 2015. On January 15, 2015, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority voted to shut down Izod Center, and have Prudential Center acquire hosting rights to events scheduled for the arena as part of a two year deal. The arena was left dormant through 2017 under this deal, after which it returned to use as a rehearsal space and film studio, but it remains closed to the public.
The venue has hosted World Wrestling Entertainment events such as SummerSlam in 1989, 1997 and 2007, as well as the King of the Ring tournament in 2001 and No Mercy in 2004. Additionally, it has also hosted numerous episodes of WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown. Izod Center also hosted No Way Out on June 17, 2012 and returned on October 22, 2012 for Raw. At the 2007 SummerSlam event, WWE announced to the live crowd that the millionth fan in attendance was recorded that night in the arena; a banner now hangs from the rafters of the arena recognizing the achievement. During the week prior to WrestleMania XXIX in 2013, which was held at MetLife Stadium, WrestleMania Fan Axxess was held in the Izod Center. The latter also hosted the Raw live event the night following WrestleMania. On May 4, 2014 WWE hosted the WWE Extreme Rules event at the venue. On August 23, 2015, WWE was set to host the 28th annual WWE SummerSlam at the Izod Center. However, after the announced closure of the arena, the event was moved to Barclays Center.
The arena also hosted World Championship Wrestling events. The most notable was a house show on January 11, 1991, where Ric Flair defeated Sting for his eighth NWA World Heavyweight Championship; during that reign he was recognized as the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion.
Events[]
- Saturday Night's Main Event II - October 5, 1985
- SummerSlam - August 28, 1989
- WCW Great American Bash Tour - July 3, 1991
- SummerSlam - August 3, 1997
- RAW - July 13, 1998
- RAW - March 29, 1999
- RAW - October 4, 1999
- RAW- March 13, 2000
- SmackDown - August 10, 2000
- RAW - December 4, 2000
- RAW - February 12, 2001
- King of the Ring - June 24, 2001
- SmackDown - November 8, 2001
- RAW- July 15, 2002
- SmackDown - January 16, 2003
- SmackDown - November 13, 2003
- RAW - March 15, 2004
- No Mercy - October 3, 2004
- RAW - July 11, 2005
- RAW - January 2, 2006
- RAW - July 31, 2006
- SmackDown - August 4, 2006
- SummerSlam - August 26, 2007
- RAW - April 28, 2008
- SmackDown - January 2, 2009
- SmackDown - January 9, 2009
- ECW - December 29, 2009
- SmackDown - January 1, 2010
- RAW - April 19, 2010
- No Way Out - June 17, 2012
- RAW - October 22, 2012
- WrestleMania Axxess 2013 - Day 1 - April 4, 2013
- WrestleMania Axxess 2013 - Day 2 - April 5, 2013
- WrestleMania Axxess 2013 - Day 3 - April 6, 2013
- WrestleMania Axxess 2013 - Day 4 - April 7, 2013
- RAW - April 8, 2013
- Extreme Rules - May 4, 2014