It was announced this week that the Prudential Center on Newark NJ continues to grow and is now a major player in the world of ticket sales.

BY JOHN BRENNAN
THE RECORD

The four-year-old Prudential Center surged past the 30-year-old Izod Center in ticket sales for concerts and family shows for the first time in 2010.

According to concert industry publication Pollstar, recently announced figures show the Prudential Center moving up to 24th worldwide in 2010, with 358,984 tickets sold. It ranked 39th in 2009, with 324,441 tickets sold in 2009, making the Newark facility one of the few in the world to see a ticket sales increase in 2010.

Izod Center, meanwhile slipped to 45th in 2010 from 21st in 2009, as ticket sales dwindled to 251,497 from 413,789 a year earlier.

Prudential Center, known colloquially as The Rock, ranked 11th among U.S. arenas, with No. 2 Madison Square Garden and No. 7 Staples Center in Los Angeles the only U.S. arenas in the worldwide top 10. The Garden, with 1.2 million tickets sold, moved up two spots from 2009, still behind repeat winner The O2 in London.

“These latest results are further confirmation that promoters and fans alike continue to recognize, in increasing numbers, what a beautiful, state-of-the-art arena The Rock is,” said Jeff Vanderbeek chairman and managing partner of Prudential Center.

The figures do not include the Prudential Center’s ticket sales for about 75 games played by the Devils, Nets and Seton Hall basketball teams in 2010. All three used to play at the Izod Center, which no longer has any sports franchises playing there.

Governor Christie has expressed a desire to privatize the Izod Center, which is adjacent to the Meadowlands Xanadu project. That project is expected to be taken over by Triple Five LLC, operator of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. Triple Five has not commented on whether it would want to manage the Izod Center as a complementary attraction for marketing purposes.

The Nassau Coliseum on Long Island saw its ticket sales drop by about 50 percent, dropping the Islanders’ home site to 70th place from 34th. Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall made the list in 2010 at 78th, with 155,773 tickets sold.

Venues Today, another trade publication, had Prudential Center moving up to 13th place from 20th in annual gross ticket revenue during a 12-month cycle ending in mid-October. The increase for Prudential Center was to $20.8 million from $20.4 million. Izod Center, which had ranked 12th last year with ticket revenues of $31 million, was not on the list of 20 arenas worldwide in 2009-10. Venues Today also factors in events like mixed martial arts and pro wrestling that Pollstar does not.

E-mail: brennan@northjersey.com Blog: northjersey.com/brennan

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