The teams came to the Meadowlands, then they left. So what happened?

Conceived in 1971 as a lure to land a major sports franchise on the newly-conceived Meadowland Sports Complex, Meadowlands Arena landed the big fish: Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals; a NCAA Final Four.

The idea of the East Rutherford arena tantalized franchise owners through most of the 1970s, and it remained a nationally-recognized arena for nearly three decades following its construction. However, shinier lures ultimately proved more effective.

This century, Brooklyn's Barclays Center Newark's Prudential Center, popped up. The Nassau Coliseum and Madison Square Garden underwent renovations. And another arena, the UBS Arena, outside Belmont Park, opened (and effectively replace the Coliseum) in November 2021.

When the idea for the Meadowlands Sports Complex took shape in 1971, two things were clear: It would have a track for horse racing to generate revenue and a football team to put it on the map, former Bergen County Freeholder William McDowell told The Record that May.

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New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority officials said they would build the arena, but a team had to come first. The idea was to build a sports and entertainment hub, McDowell explained in May 1971. Local stakeholders had made overtures to basketball, baseball and hockey franchises, he said.

“The Giants should be committed within the next six weeks,” McDowell said. “The Yankees are in limbo.”

The New York Yankees stayed in the Bronx, but the racetrack and stadium remained on course, and opened in 1976. The following summer, the seeds for the region's competitive arena scene were planted by then-New York Nets President Roy Boe.

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In July 1977, Boe sent the Sports and Exposition Authority a letter of intent. If the Meadowlands Sports Complex had an indoor arena, his team would move from the Nassau Coliseum and become the prime tenant of what would originally be known as Brendan Byrne Arena.

Though it was the deal they offered, authority officials had concerns about competing with nearby Madison Square Garden — and to a lesser extent, a more desperate Nassau Coliseum — for concerts, circuses and other spectacles during the 320 days of the year the Nets weren't playing at home. The Record’s editorial board and the building's namesake, then-governor Brendan Byrne, doubted the profitability of the pursuit in the following days.

“There just might not be enough events and customers to go around,” said Byrne.

On the other hand, the authority owned the tax-free land, had a sea of parking lots and access to low-interest rates. It also had a prospective customer base of state residents who regularly supplied the Garden with a third of its gate, according to Byrne. By the end of July, authority officials approved the deal. The Nets were moving to New Jersey.

Contractors broke ground on the arena in early 1979 after lengthy environmental and financial reviews. Following cave-ins at the Hartford Civic Center in January 1978 and Kansas City's Kemper Arena in June 1979, authority officials ordered additional steel buttresses for the roof, and Wood-Ridge’s Terminal Construction Corp. extended the project .

Meanwhile, Boe’s financial struggles compromised the plans. As the Nets took up temporary quarters at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, Boe accumulated bills for snow plowing, and had his $77,000 in arrears reported in The Record.

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Jack Krumpe, the authority’s executive director, faced criticism for building an arena for an NBA team that wasn't drawing big crowds. He nonetheless told The Record in 1978 that he was confident another NBA team would fill the seats. Moreover, he said, three National Hockey League teams had expressed interest in the arena.

Among the likely candidates was the Colorado Rockies. The struggling NHL franchise had recently been bought by New Jersey millionaire Arthur Imperatore, who planned to bring the team to the complex but instead flipped it for riverside rail yards in Hoboken and Weehawken.

The Nets would be around for opening day, but the arena’s costs would nonetheless be the state’s expense. Once tallied, the $40- to $50-million initial cost estimate totaled roughly $85 million.

The generic design from Grad Partnership and Dilullo, Clauss, Ostroki & Partners opened on July 2, 1981. Governor Byrne’s name was plastered on the side. Bruce Springsteen’s was on the marquee. "The Boss" played six concerts over six days. The arena’s revenue-generating prospects looked strong.

Brendan Byrne Arena welcomed the New Jersey Nets on Oct. 31, 1981. Within a year, it would host the NBA All-Star Game and see Imperatore’s intent to move the NHL’s Colorado Rockies to New Jersey realized, though with different ownership. On Oct. 5, 1982, the renamed New Jersey Devils took co-occupancy. Under president and general manager Lou Lamoriello, the Devils made 13 consecutive playoff appearances and won three of five Stanley Cup Finals over 25 years. The Devils were the arena’s most successful team.

It was also the first to leave.

Following the 2007 season, the Devils left for Newark’s new Prudential Center. Meadowlands’ basketball-specific layout quickly became restrictive, at least according to team officials reliant on strong revenues to retain employment. Newark-based Continental Airlines, which bought the arena’s naming rights prior to the 1996 Final Four, opted out of its deal.

By then, the New Jersey Nets had also signaled their intent to move to Brooklyn. Though the Nets made consecutive NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, the team’s time in New Jersey was marred by the tragic death of 28-year-old Croatian star Dražen Petrović in a June 1993 car accident.

By 2005, Meadowlands Arena was named the worst value for NBA ticket-buyers by Greg Boeck, a USA Today writer who visited every venue in the league. That was despite the intrinsic value added by the arena’s famed Mrs. Fields Cookies, he noted.

While waiting for its Brooklyn, New York, arena to open, the Nets continued to play in a newly renamed IZOD Arena. However, politicians, including then Newark Mayor Cory Booker, pushed for the arena’s closure and a consolidation at the newer Prudential Center. The final Nets game at Meadowlands Arena, on April 12, 2010, brought an end to the arena’s reason for being.

For the next five years, the arena trundled on with ice shows, concerts and graduations. In January 2015, the authority board voted to close its creation, given the bleak revenue outlook and losses amounting to about $700,000 a month. All secured bookings would go to the Prudential Center for a cut-rate cost of $2 million.

Though closed for public events, Meadowlands Arena remained in private use as a rehearsal stage for musicians preparing for concerts in the area through most of the 2010s. More recently, NBC Universal has leased the arena to film video productions.

David Zimmer is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Sports teams were drawn to the Meadowlands. So why did they leave?