IZOD Center closing forces WWE to find new SummerSlam home

With the IZOD Center due to close at the end of the month, WWE must now find a new location for their August 23 Summer Slam pay-per-view.

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Wanted: location for annual event where grown men and women beat the hell out of each of each other (well, not really, since it will be scripted. But still….). Must be available for August 23. Would prefer big venue with a loud and loyal fan base capable of saying “Yes! Yes! Yes!” for a bearded man while also willing to boo and jeer at Authority.

Well, at least that’s what Vince McMahon and WWE must be thinking now that New Jersey’s IZOD Center is set to close on January 31. With news of the 34-year-old center exiting stage left, WWE is now in scramble mode to find a home for their annual SummerSlam pay-per-view.

“An administration official said all events scheduled past March 31 would not take place at Izod Center – including the popular WWE SummerSlam wrestling event slated for Aug. 23,” according to a quote attributed to John Brennan of NorthJersey.com. The affected promoters are scheduled to be contacted almost immediately.”

There’s little reason to be concerned about WWE finding an area suitable for one of the company’s Big Four pay-per-views (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania and Survivor Series, if you’re wondering), the sticky part of the issue is that the company has been billing this year’s SummerSlam as the WWE coming home to the New York-New Jersey area.

Wrestling (oops…sports entertainment) is just the icing on the weekend cake that also includes fan events, autograph signings and a host of other community outreach programs that has endeared WWE as one of the most user-friendly entertainment outlets in the world.

The IZOD Center (originally named Brendan T. Byrne Arena) had its glory days, when it served as a home for the New Jersey Devils, the then-New Jersey Nets and Seton Hall basketball. Since all three left for better venues between 2007 and 2010, IZOD has hosted only a handful of concerts, although it had become popular for high school graduation ceremonies and family-friendly holiday events.

An obvious solution for WWE — provided they still want to “come home” — would be to either move SummerSlam to either Brooklyn’s Barclays Center or to Madison Square Garden. At the same time, the loss of IZOD Center could turn out to be a blessing in disguise for a currently unsuspecting city who get a huge financial windfall from WWE.

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