Capital One Arena

"MCI Center" redirects here. For the building in Los Angeles, see MCI Center (Los Angeles).

Not to be confused with Capital Arena.

Capital One Arena

Capital One Arena in November 2023
Capital One Arena Location within Washington, D.C. Capital One Arena Location within the United States
Former names	MCI Center (1997–2006) Verizon Center (2006–2017)
Address	601 F Street NW
Location	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Coordinates	38°53′53″N 77°1′15″W
Owner	Monumental Sports & Entertainment
Capacity	Basketball: 20,356 Pro wrestling: 19,300 Ice hockey: 18,573
Public transit	Washington Metro at Gallery Place
Construction
Groundbreaking	October 18, 1995
Opened	December 2, 1997
Cost	US$260 million (US$487 million in 2024 dollars)
Architects	Ellerbe Becket Devrouax & Purnell KCF-SHG Architects
Project managers	John Stranix and Seagull Bay Sports, LLC
Structural engineers	Delon Hampton & Associates
Services engineer	John J. Christie Associates
General contractor	Clark/Smoot
Tenants
Washington Wizards (NBA) (1997–present) Washington Capitals (NHL) (1997–present) Georgetown Hoyas (NCAA) (1997–present) Washington Mystics (WNBA) (1998–2018) Washington Power (NLL) (2001) Washington Valor (AFL) (2017–2019)
Website
capitalonearena.com

Capital One Arena is a multi-purpose 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.

The development of the arena has contributed to the gentrification of the surrounding area, the displacement of most of its Asian-American residents (the local Chinese-American population, which numbered over 3,000 before the arena's construction, was a mere 300 in 2023), and the replacement of most of the small businesses and restaurants that served the Asian-American community by national chains.