Meadowlands Arena Is Likely Closing

Izod Center

Meadowlands Arena Is Likely Closing

Izod Center

And another New York-area DIY venue bites the dust. (Just kidding.) New Jersey’s Meadowlands Arena — now called the Izod Center, though it’s had quite a few names — probably won’t be long for this world. The arena is kind of a dump, but it’s hosted all sorts of important concerts since it opened in 1981. (The 2005 Jay-Z show I saw there might still be the best arena show I’ve ever seen.) In recent years, the arena has lost all its big sports tenants: the now-Brooklyn Nets, the New Jersey Devils, the Seton Hall basketball team. And it doesn’t host too many concerts anymore, since it faces regional competition from grander, flashier venues like Madison Square Garden, the Barclays Center, and the Prudential Center. NorthJersey.com reports that the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority board is holding a meeting today, deciding whether or not to approve a plan to shut the arena down. It seems likely to happen. It would be cool if Bruce Springsteen played the final shows there, just as he did with the nearby Giants Stadium when it closed a few years back.

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