[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.

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.

[9] The SNHU Arena is located in downtown Manchester on Elm Street (U.S. Route 3) at the corner of Lake Avenue.

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.

On November 19, 2021, SNHU Arena was the site of Demetrius Andrade vs Jason Quigley, a fight on Matchroom Boxing.

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.

Even though the institution's name is on the facility, none of SNHU's athletic programs play any home games at the arena.

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.

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.