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Polishing 'The Rock'

Lawmakers rush $300M tax subsidy for Prudential Center

By: Daniel Munoz
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... New Jersey lawmakers are rushing a bill before next week's [01/13/2026] legislative deadline that would enable the state to provide a $300 million taxpayer-funded subsidy to renovate Prudential Center in Newark, home of the New Jersey Devils hockey team and the Seton Hall University men's basketball team, and a major concert venue.
..... The measure - Assembly bill 6306 - doesn't single out Prudential Center, since the state constitution prevents the passage of specially tailored legislation. rather, it is worded in such a way that would make only that venue, which has a maximum capacity of about 19,500, eligible for the tax break.
..... According to the legislation, the tax break could only go to a stadium that has been operating for at least 15 years, has at least 15,000 seats, hosts games, performance "and other events," and is located in a city with an international airport, a reference to Newark Liberty International Airport.
..... Only Prudential Center, owned by the Newark Housing authority, meets that criteria in New Jersey.
..... Lawmakers in the state Assembly's economic development committee approved the measure in a 10-2 Democratic committee members voting yes.
..... Assemblyman Alex Sauickie and Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, both Republicans, were the two dissenting votes. The bill was scheduled to be taken up by the Assembly Appropriations Committee and the Senate Budget Appropriations Committee on January 8. [2026]
..... The current legislative session ends on January 13, [2026] so it would also have to fully pass both chambers and be approved by Governor Phil Murphy by January 20, [2026] when he leaves office.
..... Murphy's office declined to comment on the bill.
..... But business magazine ROI-NJ reported in 2024 that Murphy has a "long-standing relationship" with David Blitzer, the co-founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns the New Jersey Devils and operates Prudential Center, and "speaks to him regularly."
..... Given that it is 19 years old, Prudential Center "needs to have major renovations," the bill;s sponsor Assembly Budget Chair Eliana Pintor-Martin, D-Essex, said on January 6. [2026]
..... "As they age and as technology gets better, it;s at a crucial point where the Credential Center - in order to continue competing - needs some severe upgrades," Pintor-Marin said.
.....The measure pours $2.5 billion into NJ Aspire and NJ emerge - two COVID-era tax economic subsidy programs meant to kick-start the state's post-pandemic economy.

$680 million in economic activity

..... For safeguards, Presidential Center's renovation would have to generate the equivalent of 150% of the value of the tax breaks, or up to $450 million if Prudential gets the full $300 million tax break.
..... Jack Reynolds, president of the arena and the New Jersey Devils, told committee members on January 5 [2026] that the center has generate more than $680 million in annual economic activity, including $30 million in state tax revenue and $4.5 million in local tax revenue to Newark.
..... "With the age of the building and the 23 million visitors that have continued to come through the doors since its opening, along with the more than 4,000 events that have been hosted there, it has taken a toll on the facility's infrastructure," Reynolds testified.
..... This isn't the first time taxpayer dollars have gone to Prudential Center, which is nicknamed "the Rock." In 2023, the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, which wons MetLife Stadium, sent $5 million in pandemic relief funds to Prudential Center.

Maintaining aging sports arenas

..... The proposal comes as states and cities across the United States consider public tax dollars to renovate America's aging sports arenas, many of which were built in the 1990s and early 2000s and are approaching their 30-year lifespan.
..... Many have received taxpayer-funded public subsidies, such as state and county bonds that helped pay for a new Buffalo Bills stadium, sate funds to pay for the Minnesota Vikings; U.S. Bank Stadium and state funding for the Tennessee Titans new stadium.
..... "Almost every independent and neutral assessment of sports arena subsidies is that they are a bad deal for public investment," Peter Chen, a senior policy analyst at the progressive think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective, told lawmakers on Monday. [01/05/2026] "They almost never pay back the promised revenues, and when looking at municipality and countrywide revenues, they tend to not make an effect at all."
..... Between 1970 and 2020, state and local governments have forked over $33 billion in pubic funds to construct major league sports venues across the United States and Canada, according to a joint study by Kennesaw State University, West Virginia University and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
..... "Despite the universal agreement among economists that sports venues are poor public investments, elected representatives continue to subsidize their construction," the study said.
..... In 2024, the Murphy administration floated the idea of an $800 million state tax break to entice the Philadelphia 76ers to build a new stadium in Camden. The basketball team ultimately opted to stay in Philadelphia.
..... Victor Matheson, a sports economist with the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, suggested that the 76ers could essentially have sparked a bidding war between neighboring states.
..... "New Jersey is one f these states that could easily be sued as a pawn against the big city, in that you could say in New York or Philadelphia [isn't] giving you the subsidies you want, you use Newark or you use Camden as a pawn to try to grab those economic subsidies," he said in a 2024 interview. "You want to get into a bidding war" between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
..... Not all stadiums have managed to secure public taxpayer financing.
..... In 2024, voters rejected a three-eights cent sales tax to pay for a new downtown Kansas City royals ballpark, in top of renovations to the Kansas City Chief's Arrowhead Stadium.

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