Capital One Arena

multi-purpose arena in Washington, D.C.

Key facts

Former names: MCI Center (1997–2006), Verizon Center (2006–2017)
Address: 601 F Street NW
Location: Washington, D.C. , U.S.
Owner: Monumental Sports & Entertainment
Capacity: Basketball : 20,356, Pro wrestling : 19,300 , Ice hockey : 18,573
Public transit: Washington Metro , at Gallery Place
Groundbreaking: October 18, 1995
Opened: December 2, 1997
Construction cost: US$260 million, (US$487 million in 2024 dollars )
Architect: Ellerbe Becket , Devrouax & Purnell , KCF-SHG Architects
Project manager: John Stranix and Seagull Bay Sports, LLC
Structural engineer

Article

Capital One Arena is an indoor arena in Washington, D.C. Located in the Chinatown section of the larger Penn Quarter neighborhood, the arena sits atop the Gallery Place rapid transit station of the Washington Metro. The arena was opened on December 2, 1997, as MCI Center, but renamed to Verizon Center in 2006 when MCI was acquired by Verizon Communications. The name was changed to Capital One Arena in 2017 when Capital One bank, headquartered in nearby Tysons, Virginia, purchased the naming rights.

Owned and operated by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, it is the home arena of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL), the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the Georgetown University men's basketball team. It was also home to the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1998 to 2018, after which they moved to the CareFirst Arena in southeast Washington for the 2019 season. The arena project was a commercial success for its backers.