The SNHU Arena (Southern New Hampshire University Arena) is an indoor events arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, and seats 9,852 for ice hockey, 11,140 for basketball and up to 11,770 for concerts.
The facility was originally known during construction as Manchester Civic Arena, and this name still appears on most of the directional signs around town. Its naming rights were sold prior to opening in 2001 and was called Verizon Wireless Arena.
On February 2, 2016, Southern New Hampshire University announced that it had purchased the naming rights from the then SMG (property management). The specific amount of money involved was never revealed, but it is known that the deal provides for student internships at the arena, and that the school will be able to use the arena for its own sporting and other events. 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.
In October 2019, SMG property management company merged with AEG Facilities, creating ASM Global.
The arena contains 542 club seats, 34 luxury suites, and five party suites.
Design
The SNHU Arena is located in downtown Manchester on Elm Street (U.S. Route 3) at the corner of Lake Avenue. The arena was built on the site of a former Zayre's department store and is located on an irregular block, surrounded by Elm Street (west), Lake Avenue (north), Chestnut Street (east) and Auburn Street (south), with Cedar (north) and Willow (east) streets taking a corner off the southwestern corner of the block.
The arena's exterior includes its notable curved blue roof, which helps heavy New Hampshire snowfall to slide off. The top half of the arena's facade is a steel oval, the western side of which is lit during events and is visible from the west side of the city and from Interstate 293. The lower half of the building is red brick (similar to that found on Manchester's iconic mills). The main entrance on the western side of the arena is entirely glass.
The floor of the arena is at ground level in the west side of the building. The Manchester Monarchs Pro Shop was formerly located at the entrance. The main concourse is on the second floor, and wraps around the entire arena: the concessions are all on that concourse aside from a bar on the third floor. There are two levels of seating: loge seats around three sides of the area and a balcony around all four sides. The arena has several luxury boxes, with a second level of boxes on the east and west sides of the interior. The arena has a standard four-sided scoreboard along with several video ribbons, located along the facades of the end zone upper decks. The arena floor level is expandable for larger events by movable seats, and events using an end zone staging area typically use the eastern end zone for the stage.
There are only a handful of onsite parking spaces, all of which are reserved for the handicapped: most patrons park on the street or in one of several large parking lots in downtown Manchester.
Sporting events
Minor league ice hockey
The arena was home to two iterations of the Manchester Monarchs, one from 2001 to 2015 in the American Hockey League and another from 2015 to 2019 in the ECHL. Both the AHL and ECHL Monarchs franchises were Los Angeles Kings farm teams. After the 2014–2015 season, Manchester and Ontario, California, were two of several markets affected by a "franchise swap" between the ECHL and AHL. The AHL Monarchs franchise moved to Southern California, and the ECHL's Ontario Reign moved to Manchester. The AHL Monarchs and ECHL Reign were both owned by the same company who owned the Kings. A year later, after the 2015–2016 season, the Kings sold the newly relocated ECHL Monarchs to an entity known as PPI Sports LLC. PPI was unable to make the team profitable at the ECHL level, and abruptly closed down the team at the end of the 2019 season after failing to find another buyer. The arena is actively seeking a new tenant.
The AHL Monarchs won the Calder Cup at the end of their last season before moving to Ontario, California.
The arena has hosted the 2005 AHL All-Star Game.
Boxing
On November 19, 2021, SNHU Arena was the site of Demetrius Andrade vs Jason Quigley, a fight on Matchroom Boxing. This was SNHU Arena's first boxing fight.
Indoor football
From 2004 to 2009, the arena was the home of the Manchester Wolves of the now disbanded AF2, the Arena Football League's minor league.