[9] The facility was originally known during construction as Manchester Civic Arena, and this name still appears on most of the directional signs around town.

On February 2, 2016, Southern New Hampshire University announced that it had purchased the naming rights from the then SMG property management.

The partnership between SMG and the university will run for a period of at least ten years after the arena officially changed its name on September 1, 2016.

[10] In October 2019, SMG property management company merged with AEG Facilities, creating ASM Global.

The arena's exterior includes its notable curved blue roof, which helps heavy New Hampshire snowfall to slide off.

The arena has a standard four-sided scoreboard along with several video ribbons, located along the facades of the end zone upper decks.

A year later, after the 2015–2016 season, the Kings sold the newly relocated ECHL Monarchs to an entity known as PPI Sports LLC.

UNH played regional tournament games in Manchester every one of those years except 2017 and 2019, when the Wildcats failed to qualify for the national championship.

The World Wrestling Entertainment has held events at the arena almost every year since 2002, including a pay per view WWE Backlash show in 2005.

The Professional Bull Riders Unleashed the Beast tour has made a few stops at the arena since 2020, when Jess Lockwood won the inaugural event in January 2020.

Hillary Clinton appeared at the arena in June 2007, to speak at the Manchester Central High School graduation.

In December 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and TV icon Oprah Winfrey appeared at a campaign rally at the arena, drawing over 8,000 people.

Overflow supporters were forced to watch the speech on large outdoor televisions because the arena ran out of space.

The night before the general election, on November 7, 2016, Republican presidential nominee Trump returned to the newly renamed SNHU Arena to address a raucous overflow crowd, beginning his speech by saying "there are thousands of people outside trying to get in."

Amongst various vendors and artists, it played host to several actors involved in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise for its 40th anniversary.