Widely known as "The Phone Booth" due to its sponsorship by telecommunications companies, the Verizon Center serves as home to both the Washington Wizards basketball team as well as the Washington Capitals hockey franchise. A replacement for the US Air Arena, the Center was opened in 1997 amid considerable controversy; historians argued that by cutting off a section of G street, the new arena fundamentally corrupted and altered the historic layout of the city, as envisioned by Pierre Charles L'Enfant. While some still grumble, the city has adapted to the new layout.
The arena seats just over 20,000 for basketball games, and just over 18,000 for hockey. In addition, there are other configurations available to suit a wide variety of events including concerts, trade shows, and conventions. The Center's most recent claim to fame was the installation of the first high-definition LED scoreboard, with a resolution of 1280 by 736 pixels on each side. The resulting images are still grainy by modern television standards, but in the realm of animated scoreboards the Verizon Center's display is among the best.
The Center has set more than a few attendance records, thanks to both the die-hard fans as well as the practice of handing out complimentary tickets. Playoff games often feature the entire arena filled with partisans; when the Capitals beat the Panthers to take the Southeast Division title in hockey, it was the third sellout that week, and the third time virtually every seat in the building was filled with a fan wearing team colors.
