Since closing, the state-owned facility has been used as a rehearsal stage by major concert-touring music stars and by NBCUniversal for television filming.

The arena is located on New Jersey Route 120 across the highway from MetLife Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack, next to the American Dream shopping and entertainment complex.

In 1985, the Seton Hall Pirates men's collegiate basketball team began playing its home games at the arena.

Seton Hall, whose campus in South Orange is closer to Newark than East Rutherford, likewise moved its basketball games there.

[6] Since 2018, NBC has leased the venue to film prime-time drama series, including The Enemy Within and Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector.

[11] The arena was designed by Grad Partnership and Dilullo, Clauss, Ostroki & Partners and was constructed at a cost of $85 million.

Another motivation for building an arena in the Meadowlands was to potentially lure a National Hockey League team to New Jersey.

Governor Byrne was a member of an ownership group that was looking to do so, and in 1978 businessman Arthur Imperatore purchased the Colorado Rockies and announced that he would be relocating the team to New Jersey.

[14] In September 2006, the Nets and the NJSEA announced an extension of their lease to keep the team in the Meadowlands until 2013, with a provision to leave as early as 2009 if the Brooklyn arena was completed.

[16] On May 5, 2007, the Devils played their last game at the arena, losing 3–2 to the Ottawa Senators, eliminating them from the Eastern Conference semifinals 4–1.

The Devils subsequently relocated to the newly constructed Prudential Center in nearby Newark at the beginning of the 2007–08 NHL season.

The two arenas proposed a joint venture, Jersey Presents LLC, to wrestle leverage from promoters who had been playing the two against each other.

[21] "You can’t have two venues that close together fighting each other and have that be productive for the state," said Jerry Zaro, economic czar to former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, who brokered the deal.

Triple Five Group had attempted to negotiate taking over the arena so it could be incorporated into the nearby American Dream Meadowlands complex, but the deal fell through.

[28][29][30] On January 15, 2015, as urged by state governor Chris Christie, the NJSEA voted to close Izod Center.

[31] On July 14, 2016, The Record reported that Devils Arena Entertainment had yet to pay the first $500,000 installment of its $2 million agreement with the NJSEA.

Seton Hall moved its Big East Conference men's basketball games to the arena for the 1985–86 season.

The arena was a popular site for concerts, having been designed with acoustics in mind and requiring a smaller facility fee for artists than competing venues, such as Madison Square Garden.

The Rolling Stones performed three consecutive shows, during their 1981 North American Tour, on November 5–7, 1981, with Tina Turner, George Thorogood & The Destroyers and The J. Geils Band as their opening acts.

This concert is infamous for Brian May 'accidentally' snapping a replica of his Red Special after he hurled it to his wall of Vox AC30s and the roadies missed catching it.

Their performance of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was featured in the concert documentary Flight 666.The Grateful Dead played 16 times from 1983 through 1989, and recorded Road Trips Volume 4 Number 2, on March 31–April 1, 1988 and Nightfall of Diamonds, on October 16, 1989.

The Dave Matthews Band's performance on September 11, 1999, was recorded for a PBS special and subsequently released as a live album and DVD, entitled Listener Supported.

On her DVD Cher: Live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, there is a video of her rehearsing at the Izod Center.

Simon & Garfunkel performed two consecutive shows during their Old Friends Reunion Tour, on December 7–8, 2003, with The Everly Brothers as their opening act.

The arena played host to the final show of the politically motivated Vote for Change Tour on October 13, 2004, featuring performances by Patti Scialfa, Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band, with special guest John Fogerty and unannounced guest Eddie Vedder.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers performed two consecutive shows during their Stadium Arcadium World Tour, on October 17 and 18, 2006, with The Mars Volta as their opening act.

[60] Fordham University's men's basketball team used the Izod Center as an alternate home court for four games in the 2010–11 season.

[61] The average attendance for these games was only 1,799, which was approximately half of the capacity of Fordham's normal home, Rose Hill Gymnasium.

[65] The Winner's Club was a luxury bar and restaurant inside the arena that hosted parties and group events.

[68] In a 2005 poll, USA Today rated it the worst arena in the NBA, with the distance of the inexpensive seats from the court, and the level of crowding in the concourse after the game cited as reasons.