{"id":40802299194,"date":"2026-10-29T14:20:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T18:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/?p=40802299194"},"modified":"2026-11-04T10:40:34","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T15:40:34","slug":"monmouth-university-celebrates-naming-of-hackensack-meridian-athletic-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/monmouth-university-celebrates-naming-of-hackensack-meridian-athletic-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Monmouth University Celebrates Naming of Hackensack Meridian Athletic Center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monmouth University officially introduced the Hackensack Meridian Athletic Center as the new name of its signature athletics venue on Oct. 24 before an exhibition men’s basketball game against Seton Hall University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newly named facility serves as the home of Monmouth’s men’s and women’s basketball programs and hosts athletic competitions, University events, and community activities throughout the year. The naming rights partnership recognizes Hackensack Meridian Health<\/em>‘s continued commitment to Monmouth University and its support of the University’s student-athletes and campus community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Hackensack Meridian Athletic Center represents another important milestone for Monmouth University,” said President Patrick F. Leahy. “We are proud to have the name of one of New Jersey’s leading health care organizations associated with a facility that plays such a central role in the life of our campus. Hackensack Meridian Health shares our commitment to excellence, to the well-being of our students, and to the communities we serve.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monmouth marked the occasion with a pregame ceremony featuring Leahy; Director of Athletics Jennifer Sansevero; University Trustee Regina M. Foley \u201989, president of specialty hospitals and clinical services and chief nurse executive at Hackensack Meridian Health<\/em>; and Michael McCauley \u201907M, senior vice president and chief of staff at Hackensack Meridian Health<\/em>. Approximately 2,000 fans attended the game at the 4,100-seat arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For our student-athletes, coaches, and fans, this building is much more than a place to compete,” said Sansevero. “It is where our teams build lasting memories, where our campus community comes together, and where we welcome thousands of visitors to Monmouth each year. We are excited to begin this new chapter with Hackensack Meridian Health and look forward to continuing to build on the tremendous energy surrounding Monmouth Athletics.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facility opened in 2009 as Monmouth’s Multipurpose Activity Center and became OceanFirst Bank Center in 2016. OceanFirst Bank remains a valued University partner, with its name prominently recognized at the OceanFirst Bank Special Exhibitions Gallery in the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, which opened in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Director of Athletics Jennifer Sansevero; Michael McCauley \u201907M; University Trustee Regina M. Foley \u201989, President Patrick F. Leahy <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The naming rights partnership recognizes Hackensack Meridian Health’s continued commitment to Monmouth University and its support of the University’s student-athletes and campus community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":282,"featured_media":40802299203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1312,107,414,188,83],"tags":[1601,7851,7848,1201],"person":[3863,7857,621,7854],"audience":[14,11,8,29],"school":[],"program":[],"class_list":["post-40802299194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advancement","category-athletics","category-campus-life","category-great-location","category-president","tag-athletics","tag-hackensack-meridian-athletic-center","tag-hmac","tag-president","person-jsanseve","person-michael-mccauley","person-president","person-regina-m-foley","audience-alumni","audience-current-student","audience-faculty","audience-media"],"squareimage":{"id":40802299206,"rendered":"\"Exterior","original":{"url":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/10\/Hackensack-Meridian-Athletic-Center_20260930_MG_013A6452.jpg","width":1131,"height":1131}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802299194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802299194"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802299194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802299221,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802299194\/revisions\/40802299221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40802299203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802299194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802299194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802299194"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=40802299194"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=40802299194"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=40802299194"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=40802299194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}