New Jersey Devils
Rink: Prudential Center
Capacity: 16,514
Built: 2007
League: NHL
City: Newark, New Jersey
Home Of: New Jersey Devils
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: January 18, 2025 vs Philadelphia
Unique Arena: #104
NHL Arena: #14
The Prudential Center (aka The Rock) is a large, impressive building that sits in downtown Newark, New Jersey in an area that I’ve been told has gotten much, much better in the nearly 20 years (hard to believe) since the Devils moved in. My travel companion had already seen a game here in 2012 and said the neighborhood was downright scary back then. But now the area has been gentrified greatly. It seems like a pleasant downtown that one could spend plenty of time in pre or post-game. Expect to hear airplanes though, as the rink sits about a mile or so north of Newark Airport. The rink is surrounded with glass facades that lets in a ton of natural light during afternoon games (as ours was), which is something I actually like a lot. The main team store is a bit of an odd setup, however. It sits just inside one of the main entrance ways after your tickets are scanned, but is separated from the from any concourse, and believe it or not in 2025 it requires a hand stamp to go in and then get back to the ticketed areas before you go up the escalators to the main concourse.
The Prudential Center has one of the smaller capacities in the NHL at about 16,500. It’s a large building but also feels intimate. Like most buildings it has a large lower bowl with a decent angle of seating and good views with comfy seats. The upper bowl isn’t really a bowl, as the seats in the ends are segregated from those that run down the sides. The sides are two separate levels with the entrance ways from the concourse halfway up between them. It requires another trip up a small flight of stairs to access the highest seats. The end seats down extend nearly as high up as the sides and the corners each have a missing section which brings capacity down a tad.
New Jersey does a lot of little things well. One example I like is separating their three Stanley Cup banners from the rest of their division and conference titles in a separate place of honour as they should be. Meanwhile the retired numbers of the Devils take up another area, bringing their own focus upon them. One thing also different is while the Devils do share the building with Seton Hall in the NCAA, they do not have to share the building with another pro sports team, so the rink truly feels like their own with Devils murals and logos splashed all through the building. The concourses are wide and easy to navigate even with a capacity crowd. The A/V, while not the most elite I’ve seen in the NHL, is still top notch.
Once the Devils moved to downtown Newark from the Meadowlands, one of the best things they’ve ever done is embrace being New Jersey’s team. While yes, they play in the New York City metro area unlike other pro sports teams that reside in Jersey like the Giants, Jets and Red Bull, they don’t claim to be from New York. They’re New Jersey through and through and marketing the team as such is a good way to set them apart from their NHL counterparts at MSG and on Long Island. For years, even when the Devils were winning Stanley Cups they would go through stretches of smaller crowds and apathy. But I was pleasantly surprised to see the atmosphere at a Devils game to be pretty good and the rink unexpectedly shot up into my top 5 in the NHL as of this writing.
