Tom Petty at Prudential Center
Prudential Center in June (a href="http://www.brooklynvegan.com/tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-prudential-center-pics-setlist/">more by Dana Distortion)

Prudential Center and MSG enter into new partnership

Newark’s Prudential Center has signed a booking and marketing agreement with NYC’s Madison Square Garden, Billboard reports.

The partnership follows heated venue wars between Azoff MSG Entertainment and AEG. The two corporations were battling it out in LA earlier this year after AEG accused Azoff of tying an artist’s performance at MSG to one at LA’s Forum (instead of the AEG-operated Staples Center). Since AEG and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE) operate Barclays Center and Nassau Coliseum, the MSG/Prudential Center partnership leaves the New York area arena market split in two, controlled by those two companies.

Prudential Center’s chief executive officer Scott O’Neil, who was previously president of MSG, downplayed the MSG/AEG rivalry to Billboard, saying “We’re the Switzerland of arenas. We have relationships with Live Nation, AEG, OVG and now MSG.”

AEG also recently acquired NYC’s Webster Hall, which will close in August for renovations before AEG reopens it.