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District approves waiver for Capital One Arena to host fans at Capitals and Wizards games at 10 percent capacity

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Washington Capitals fans will be allowed to attend a hockey game as soon as next week.

Friday, the District approved Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s waiver for Capital One Arena to host fans at Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards games immediately. DC gave MSE permission to host fans at 10 percent capacity.

The news was reported by the Washington Post’s Michael Brice-Saddler.

The approval letter was written by the Director of the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency Christopher Rodriguez:

Dear Ms. Dixon,

On March 11, 2021, you submitted a waiver through the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) to return fans at 10 percent capacity to Capital One Arena. In response, your request for a waiver is APPROVED, effective immediately, assuming the following conditions:

– As an added precaution and COVID-19 mitigation measure, we will require modified alcohol sales. Specifically, all sales will be limited to two beverages per person (over the age of 21).
– You will strictly follow the guidelines in the NBA and NHL re-opening documents;
– Please immediately inform the DC Department of Health (DC Health) of any COVID-19 laboratory-confirmed, positive cases

One further condition of this waiver is that you allow inspectors from DC Health, HSEMA, and the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration to inspect facilities to verify your compliance. Further, if the NBA or NHL modify their guidance, you will come back to us to confirm you are allowed to proceed with its new terms. Such assent is not automatic on our part. I will be your point of contact.

Again, we appreciate your partnership and look forward to learning from this re-opening initiative.

Sincerely,
Dr. Christopher Rodriguez
Director, HSEMA

Ten percent capacity would be 2,100 people. The Capitals’ next home game is Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers. It would be the first game they hosted fans at a game since March 4, 2020… against the Flyers.

MSE’s Monica Dixon tweeted her gratefulness after the news was announced.

As did Ted Leonsis.

Leonsis said more details would come next week.

The approval comes four days after MSE published a release saying they were doubtful fans would return before the end of the regular season and pointed out they’d be one of the last cities in the country to do so.

“The Caps and Wizards regular season ends in May and it appears we will complete the 20-21 season with no fans in attendance,” Dixon wrote. “We are very disappointed with the District’s failure to grant our waiver as this means Washington DC is on track to be one of the last American cities to host fans at indoor sporting events.”

Ted Leonsis voiced his displeasure then as well.

But by the end of the week, the city relented and approved their plans.

HSEMA also gave permission for the Washington Nationals and DC United, who both have outdoor stadiums, to host fans at 25 percent capacity. They previously could do so at 10 percent.

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