Prudential Center now publishes its bag limit in three dimensions: bags larger than 14 by 12 by 6 inches are prohibited, according to the arena’s entry policy page and the Bag Policy entry of its A-Z Guide as of October 2026. Two older measurements still sit on other prucenter.com pages, so the arena’s own site gives three answers to one question. What follows is what the Newark arena publishes about bags, where its own pages disagree, and what a refused bag costs once you are already at the door.
Newark now writes its bag limit as a 14 by 12 by 6 inch box
Prudential Center prohibits bags larger than 14 by 12 by 6 inches and refuses backpacks of any kind, per its entry policy page as of October 2026. The 6 inch depth is the figure that used to be missing: a flat tote that fits the face and stays under 6 inches is permitted, a thick duffel with the same face is not, and a hard sided bag fails at any size.
Three clauses carry the whole rule. Bags larger than 14 by 12 by 6 inches, backpacks of any kind, large duffel bags, coolers and hard sided bags stay outside. Every other bag is hand screened or X-rayed. Parenting bags and medically necessary bags may be exempted from the size limit but must go through the X-ray, according to the same entry page. The backpack ban puts the Newark arena beside UBS Arena and a long way from Madison Square Garden, where the word backpack appears on no page at all.
| What Prudential Center publishes | The published wording | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum bag | Bags larger than 14 by 12 by 6 inches are prohibited | Entry policy page and A-Z Guide Bag Policy entry, October 2026 |
| Older wording still online | Bags up to 12 by 12 by 14 inches, and bags or purses over 12 by 14 inches refused | Safety page, and the prohibited items list in the A-Z Guide |
| Backpacks | Not permitted at any size | Entry policy, A-Z Guide and prohibited items |
| Hard sided bags | Prohibited at any size | Prohibited items list |
| Clear bag requirement | None published | Absent from every Prudential Center page checked |
| A bag that fails | A secure locker truck outside the arena stores oversized bags and prohibited items | Entry policy page |
| Locker price | $8 to $10 per locker | A-Z Guide, storage lockers entry |
| Exceptions | Parenting and medically necessary bags may be exempted from the size limit, X-rayed | Entry policy and prohibited items |
| Re-entry | No re-entry, with exceptions such as a medical necessity | A-Z Guide |
Three prucenter.com pages, three different bag sizes
Prudential Center states one rule in three shapes. The entry policy page and the Bag Policy entry of the A-Z Guide set the limit at 14 by 12 by 6 inches. The safety page still reads that bags up to 12 by 12 by 14 inches are permitted, and the prohibited items list in the A-Z Guide still refuses bags or purses over 12 by 14 inches, all checked October 2026.
The three are not interchangeable. The entry page caps depth at 6 inches, the safety page allows up to 12, and the prohibited items list gives no depth at all, so a soft weekender 10 inches deep passes two of the pages and fails the one that counts. The current entry page is the strictest of the three, and a bag that fits it fits the other two.
The prohibited items list closes part of the gap by material rather than by inches. Beside its 12 by 14 inch line it refuses hard sided bags of any size, a rule the entry page now repeats. The new entry page also lands on the depth its neighbour uses: UBS Arena states all three numbers as 12 by 12 by 6 inches across four of its own pages, and Newark now caps depth at the same 6 inches.
One A-Z Guide entry permits a bag and another refuses every bag
Both statements sit in the same A-Z Guide. Under Bag Policy it reads that bags larger than 14 by 12 by 6 inches are prohibited, which leaves smaller bags allowed after screening. Under Security Screening, further down the same page, it reads that bags are not permitted in Prudential Center at this time, both checked October 2026.
That second entry sends readers to prucenter.com/safety for details on exceptions for medical and childcare needs, which is the page still carrying the 12 by 12 by 14 inch version of the limit. Taken in sequence, one guide permits a bag, forbids every bag, and then refers the reader to a third page for a different measurement of the bag it has just forbidden.
Only one reading is enforced at the door, and the entry policy page is the one the arena links from its own Entry Policy navigation. Treat 14 by 12 by 6 inches as the working number, keep the bag soft, and the contradictions never get tested. Arriving with a bag measured to the 12 by 12 by 14 inches of the safety page means taking the most generous reading on the site and losing on depth, and a rigid case loses anyway on material.
Two of the four main Prudential Center doors have a locker outside
Four main entrances are listed by name, checked September 2026. The Citizens Tower sits on the northeast corner at Mulberry Street and Edison Place, the M&M’s Tower on the southeast corner at Mulberry Street and Lafayette Street, the Lafayette Street Entrance on the south side, and the Hyundai Skybridge crosses from Level 4 of the Hyundai Parking Deck.
Lockers are published at two of them, outside the M&M’s Tower and the Lafayette Street entrances. The same pair appears, according to the Prudential Center A-Z Guide, as the M&M’s Tower and Lafayette Lobby Entrance at 25 Lafayette Street. Neither is the door the arena points train arrivals toward: to exit toward Newark Penn Station, which the guide places a short two blocks east of the building, guests are sent to the Citizens Tower on the northeast corner.
The consequence is unglamorous and worth having in advance. Someone walking in from Newark Penn Station meets the corner with no locker first, and the locker bank is at the far pair of doors. Anyone carrying a bag they are unsure about should aim for the M&M’s Tower or the Lafayette Street entrance from the start, because circling the block after a refusal spends the margin the doors bought. Reaching that corner from Manhattan or Westchester is its own problem, set out in our guide to reaching every New York area stadium and arena.
Only Newark charges for the shelf that holds a refused bag
A price is published for the service. Storage lockers range in price from $8 to $10, sit outside the two named entrances, and take prohibited bags after a security screening, checked September 2026. Stored items must be collected at the end of the event.
That is the only published charge for leaving a bag behind at a large venue in the region, and one of only three places to leave it at all. MetLife Stadium charges $5 per item at non NFL events and nothing at NFL games. UBS Arena publishes a bag check in the Acrisure Great Hall with no price attached. The remaining three publish no service to price.
| Venue | Published bag limit | Where a refused bag can go | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prudential Center, Newark | 14 by 12 by 6 inches on the entry page | Locker outside the M&M’s Tower or the Lafayette Street entrance | $8 to $10 per locker |
| MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford | 12 by 6 by 12 inches, clear bag required | Bag check on site | $5 per item at non NFL events, no charge at NFL games |
| UBS Arena, Elmont | 12 by 12 by 6 inches | Bag check in the Acrisure Great Hall | Not published by the arena |
| Madison Square Garden, Manhattan | 22 by 14 by 9 inches | No area to check bags, coats or belongings | No service to price |
| Barclays Center, Brooklyn | 10 by 6 by 2 inches | Back to a vehicle, at an arena that owns no garage | No service to price |
| Yankee Stadium, Bronx | 16 by 16 by 8 inches, soft sided | No storage area for any items, strollers only at the Gate 6 booth | No service to price |
Read the last column and the ranking inverts against the second. Madison Square Garden allows the largest bag of the six and stores nothing at all, while Barclays Center allows the smallest and tells guests to return the bag to a vehicle at an arena that owns no garage. Newark sits mid table on inches and first on recovery, which is the column that decides the evening once the wrong bag is already at the door.
The single sentence that removes the laptop and the tablet in Newark
Prohibited items include all electronic devices with the exception of cell phones and non professional cameras, checked September 2026. One clause, written as a category rather than an inventory, takes out laptops, tablets, portable speakers and handheld consoles without naming any of them.
Neighbouring arenas write the same subject as a list and end up more permissive by accident. Barclays Center admits laptops, personal computers and tablets, and restricts only their use inside the seating bowl. UBS Arena bars laptops and personal computers and never names tablets, which leaves the tablet unresolved in Elmont and settled in Newark by a sentence that mentions neither.
Cameras run the same way. Small non professional cameras without an external flash or extendable lens are permitted for some events, and professional cameras with a lens of 2.5 inches or greater are refused. Both Barclays Center and UBS Arena draw that line at 3 inches, so the Newark threshold is the tightest of the three by half an inch. Video and audio equipment, GoPros, selfie sticks and tripods go no further than the door.
Six Newark rules that travel badly from any other arena
- Signs, banners, posters and flags cannot be larger than 8.5 by 11 inches, cannot be attached to a stick or pole, and cannot carry wires, lights or batteries. Brooklyn and Elmont both allow 11 by 17 inches, so a sign that clears Barclays Center or UBS Arena is well over double the Newark limit.
- Guests may not bring their own food or beverages to any event. No water bottle exception is published, where Yankee Stadium admits an empty reusable non glass bottle up to 24 oz and Citi Field judges bottles by seal and by temperature.
- Cash is refused at concession stands, retail locations and the Box Office. Reverse ATM kiosks with $0 transactional fees stand by sections 1, 14 and 125 and inside the Box Office Lobby, so a cash only visitor converts before buying anything.
- Small fold up umbrella strollers are permitted and should be stored under a seat. Anything that will not fit under a seat is refused entry but can be checked at the Guest Services Centers near Sections 9 and 114.
- Umbrellas are permitted if they stay closed and have no pointed end, which is looser than the pointed tip or large umbrellas refused in Brooklyn and Elmont. Storage is the guest’s problem: it must not block another seat’s view.
- Lost property goes to the Guest Services Center outside Sections 9 and 114 and is held for two weeks before donation to local charities, against the 10 days the Yankees publish. Guest Services also runs an anonymous in-event text line on 507.PC.GUEST, which dials as 507.724.8378.
Doors at 60 minutes and no ordinary way back out once you are in
Arena doors open approximately 60 to 90 minutes before an event starts, though times vary per event, checked September 2026. That window is the whole margin for a bag problem, because it has to cover the walk to a locker, the screening of whatever goes into it, and the queue at the magnetometers.
Re-entry closes the second option. Prudential Center runs a no re-entry policy during events, with certain exceptions such as a medical necessity, and those cases require coordinating with a Guest Services Supervisor before leaving the building. No exception of any kind is published by Barclays Center, so Newark is the more forgiving of the two, but only through a supervisor and only for a reason the arena accepts.
Two smaller traps close the rest of it. Ticket windows run Monday to Friday from 11am to 5pm and shut at weekends unless an event is on, when the Ticketmaster Box Office opens at 11am, so a ticket problem cannot be fixed in person on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Will Call opens 3 hours before show time at that same box office, reached from the entrance on Edison Place beside the Citizens Tower, and that is the one corner of the building with no locker outside it.
Editorial note: prices, schedules, and policies on this page were checked against the official sources named in the text in September 2026, and the bag limit again in October 2026. Venues, airports, and transit agencies change them without notice; confirm with the operator before you travel. Westchester Ride does not sell tickets or parking and does not accept payment to rank any operator.
No. The Newark arena publishes a size and a material rule, not a clear bag rule: bags larger than 14 by 12 by 6 inches and hard sided bags are prohibited, per its entry policy page as of October 2026. The word clear appears on none of its entry, safety, A-Z or prohibited items pages, and no clear bag policy exists anywhere on prucenter.com.
Bags up to 14 by 12 by 6 inches. The entry policy page and the Bag Policy entry of the A-Z Guide prohibit anything larger, as of October 2026. Older wording survives elsewhere on prucenter.com, 12 by 12 by 14 inches on the safety page and 12 by 14 inches on the prohibited items list, so measure to the smallest of the three.
No, at any size. Its entry policy states that backpacks of all sizes are not permitted into the arena, and the prohibited items list repeats it as backpacks of any size, checked September 2026. Hard sided bags of any size are refused on that same list.
Storage lockers range in price from $8 to $10, published in the arena A-Z Guide and checked September 2026. They sit outside two of the four main entrances at 25 Lafayette Street, Newark. Stored items are screened before they go in and must be collected at the end of the event.
No. Prohibited items include all electronic devices with the exception of cell phones and non professional cameras, checked September 2026. That single sentence covers laptops, tablets and speakers. Barclays Center admits laptops and tablets, and UBS Arena bars laptops without naming tablets at all.
No, with one published exception. Its A-Z Guide sets a no re-entry policy during events, with certain exceptions such as a medical necessity, and requires the guest to coordinate with a Guest Services Supervisor before exiting, checked September 2026. Doors open 60 to 90 minutes before start time.
Newark now publishes a depth like most of its neighbours, and it still sells a shelf for the bag that fails: $8 to $10 per locker, per its own A-Z Guide checked October 2026, outside two doors of the four. Read together, the 6 inch limit and the priced locker tell a guest to measure the bag at home.
Related guides
Every venue named above sets its own limit, and each one is measured here against its own published pages rather than against a regional average.
- Elmont sets 12 by 12 by 6 inches and keeps a bag check with no published price
- Brooklyn’s 10 by 6 by 2 inch limit and the remedy the arena cannot offer
- A 22 by 14 by 9 inch box at Madison Square Garden and nowhere to check it
- How Citi Field decides a backpack by transparency instead of inches
- Soft sided at 16 by 16 by 8 inches in the Bronx, with a booth only for strollers
- Transportation to every stadium and arena in the New York area
Sources
Official pages this guide relies on, checked in October 2026. Rules and prices can change, sometimes for a single event, so confirm with the issuer before you travel.
