Washington Capitals and Wizards fans will soon be able to watch their teams play at Capital One Arena. Monumental Sports’ waiver to D.C. was approved by Mayor Muriel Bowser and city officials effective immediately. The Nationals and D.C. United meanwhile will up their capacity to 25 percent while the Caps and Wizards will start off with 10 percent.
That will be about 2,100 lucky fans. The Washington Mystics of the WNBA also got approved to host 450 fans at Entertainment and Sports Arena. The Nats opened their season with 5,000 fans on Tuesday and had a doubleheader on Wednesday.
Now that number can go up to 10,000. D.C. United will also host fans at 25 percent capacity at Audi Field which is about 5,000 fans. They open the season on April 17.
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The Caps, Wizards and Nationals are all on the road right now. The Caps are taking on the Sabres in Buffalo. The Nats play the Los Angeles Dodgers this weekend. The Wizards will take on the Golden State Warriors tonight.
The Caps next home game is on April 13 against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Wizards next home game is on April 16 against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Nationals come home on April 15.
After we wrote about the issue that the waiver was still pending, I’ll bet there was internal pressure from the city officials that caused them to change their minds. After all, businesses are suffering, arena workers lost money from not working the games, and overall not being at a game caused some severe depression for a lot of fans.
"We are grateful to @MayorBowser, DC Health & DC HSEMA for granting us a waiver to welcome Caps and Wizards fans back to Capital One Arena. The waiver is for a 10% capacity / 2,100 fans. We are finalizing details and will release further announcements on Monday, April 12th"
Caps fans we did it. We are coming home to Capital One Arena. It could be as early as Tuesday night against the Flyers. It could be another date but either way, it’s coming soon.
It has been a long and challenging year for all of us. Now that vaccines are out, fans are coming back to arenas, and things are opening up, I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are almost through this.