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Ahead of this evening’s major Men’s March Madness matchups in Newark, NJBIZ spoke with a top Prudential Center official for some behind-the-scenes insights.

The East Regional Sweet 16 and Elite 8 will take place at the Prudential Center. Games begin with March 27’s doubleheader, featuring Alabama (2) vs. BYU (6) at 7:09 p.m.; followed by Duke (1) vs. Arizona (4) with a scheduled tip-off time of 9:39 p.m. The winners of those two games square off Saturday night – with a trip to the Final Four on the line.

This marks the first time since 2011 that Newark and the Prudential hosted the East Regional.

In conversation Thursday with NJBIZ, Dylan Wanagiel, vice president, Sports Properties & Special Events, discussed the preparations, key activations, buzz and more surrounding the games.

“At Prudential Center, we always say we are in the big event business,” Wanagiel told NJBIZ. “And quite frankly, it doesn’t get much bigger than March Madness. It’s so exciting for us to have the NCAA Men’s Basketball East Regional back here for the first time since 2011. Preparations have been going on, really, for the last year. The NCAA does a tremendous job of issuing an operations manual, which was in the neighborhood of 300 pages. And the operations team has learned every page of it; every word of it.

“And thankfully, we’re ready to go and excited for tonight.”

In the Zone

“Within or around the area, are there any programming, activations that would want to highlight?” NJBIZ asked.

“We’re tremendously excited for the Fan Zone – that we have produced and created from scratch – out on Championship Plaza, which is located on the corner of Edison and Mulberry,” he said. “That’s going to open up today at 3:30 p.m. and will run to approximately 7:30 p.m. That has pop-a-shot games, video games, corn hole, face painting, caricatures, food trucks — and all the fun stuff that you would see at a Fan Zone. So, we’re excited for that as well.”

#MarchMadness is movin’ into The Rock. 🏀 pic.twitter.com/dzdNyR61tv

— Prudential Center (@PruCenter) March 26, 2025

He then discussed collaborating with the City of Newark to ease the path of travel for folks coming from out of town.

“And we’re anticipating close to 70% of the audience being out of towners – their first time in Newark; their first time at Prudential Center,” said Wanagiel. “And the city has done a great job of preparing ambassadors that will have these orange vests and orange jackets to help the path of travel from the train station to Prudential Center.

“The city has also put up additional signage – big, bold banners. We’re anticipating close to 20,000 guests for Thursday as well as for Saturday. So, these are some really packed houses.”

A pirate’s life

“After a year of preparations and all the different logistics – especially over the last couple of days – what’s it like now seeing the day come to fruition?” NJBIZ asked.

“More than anything – pride,” he said. “Very proud of our team here – we’re collaborating within every department within the company, from operations to sales, marketing, PR, parking. Our group that’s heading up the parking garage has been very busy. Cleaning – we’ve cleaned every square of this place. Painting – we’ve painted every square inch of this place. So, all those little details that go into it.”

Wanagiel gave a special shout-out to Seton Hall University and its Athletics Department, which is run by Director of Athletics & Recreation Bryan Felt.

“They, ultimately, are the host university. We are the host venue. But Seton Hall’s staff is really overseeing all the game operations of what it takes to play a Division-1 basketball game. And also, have done a tremendous job with the transportation issues that come with four teams flying from all over the country into Newark Airport. And then – how do they get from the airport to their hotel?

“They’ve been collaborating closely with the New Jersey State Police to provide police escorts for literally every trip that the teams make from hotel to venue – from hotel to restaurant, whatever the case may be,” he continued. “They have escorts wherever they go – and that’s really been Seton Hall taking the lead on that.”

The payoff

“As we get closer and closer to tip-off, what’s the buzz like in the city and around the arena?” NJBIZ asked.

“Tickets were selling well from the minute we went on-sale many months ago,” said Wanagiel. “But the reality is – once these four major marquee programs qualified to get here to Newark, it’s just been almost incalculable the demand for tickets and the buzz of: ‘Wow, this is really here.’ We lucked out. We have two monster matchups – marquee brands, marquee teams, passionate fanbases. The energy in the room is going to be truly electric.”

“And I’ll close with this, how excited is your organization to be able to show off the Prudential Center on the national state – both tonight and Saturday, and to show off the great City of Newark?” NJBIZ asked.

“We are tremendously excited – so proud and honored that the NCAA selected Newark; selected Prudential Center and Seton Hall back in 2020. It’s been nearly five years waiting for the payoff – but we’re finally here,” said Wanagiel. “And it’s palpable. We got goosebumps like golf balls and we’re ready to go.”

And as the conversation wrapped, Wanagiel stressed the point that the discussion began with.

“Newark and Prudential Center – we’re in the big event business. And this is as big as it gets.”