Washington Capitals majority owner Ted Leonsis showed off one of Capital One Arena’s newest — and mostly completed — renovations on Tuesday: the bathrooms.
“One of our fans’ biggest asks, now delivered. More concourse restrooms. Newly renovated. All part of the transformed @CapitalOneArena,” Leonsis said proudly.
Ted added that “by the time the project is complete in fall 2027, every restroom on every floor will be renovated. We are also adding more restrooms on the concourses.”
Leonsis has long been obsessive about the small details of the fan experience, dating back to his early days personally responding to complaints about empty ketchup dispensers at the arena. In a 2024 interview with The Washingtonian, Leonsis shared a story that stayed with him after seeing the restroom traffic on the concourse following a game.
“How can we give fans better sightlines, easier ways to get in and out of the building? How do we help to mitigate traffic? How do we enhance their safety? How do we give them more and better bathrooms?” he said then. “I’m starting to look at brochures and magazines on plumbing, right? I never thought I would. But it’s important to fans. The last game of the season for the Wizards, I stayed to the end, obviously, and I’m walking out, and there’s a line, at the end of the game, of people going in the bathroom. I was talking to some people, and we need to do things like more stalls.”
Leonsis’s photos were broadly well-received by fans on social media. One Capitals season-ticket holder, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly, told RMNB that the arena’s bathrooms needed some TLC overall after years of usage. Not only was the number of bathroom stalls a problem during high-traffic times, but so too were the proper functioning of stall doors, the water temperature in the sinks, and the baby-changing tables — problems even this writer experienced when going to a game as a fan in the winter.
Leonsis also addressed a known hot water issue in the women’s bathrooms, saying it needs a bigger fix coming next year.
“Summer 2027 we are replacing the systems necessary to properly circulate hot water around the arena,” Leonsis said. “Know this is an issue and we are on it.” In another tweet, he explained that the apparently wonky system was 30 years old.
Overall, from the pictures Leonsis shared, the renovated bathrooms have gone decidedly upscale, trading the utilitarian arena-restroom look for something closer to a modern hotel or Connor McDavid’s house. The entire space is built around a monochromatic charcoal-and-gray palette (thank you, my art school education, for this vocabulary) with oversized stone-look porcelain tiles covering both the floors and walls.
The sink area may be the biggest departure from the old setup. A long, wall-to-wall black countertop — seemingly made from a dark quartz or engineered-stone material with subtle white veining — contains a row of individually inset rectangular white basins. Each sink is paired with its own brushed-metal, single-handle faucet.
The stalls follow the same minimalist design. Tall charcoal-gray partitions run almost from floor to ceiling, providing considerably more privacy than conventional bathroom stalls. The doors use simple metal hardware and appear to have relatively narrow gaps around their edges.
Even the flooring gets the luxury treatment. Large rectangular gray tiles extend throughout the bathroom, each carrying a slightly different marble-like pattern of wispy white veins, scratches, and cloudy variations. The effect is less “public restroom at a hockey arena,” and more “someone at Monumental spent a surprising amount of time looking at tile samples.”
There are also a few reminders that the renovation isn’t completely finished yet — sections of the ceiling remain open with infrastructure exposed — and there are no mirrors up, something Leonsis says is being installed ahead of the upcoming seasons for the Capitals and Wizards. But the overall design is modern, heavily tiled, and considerably more upscale than what Capitals fans were accustomed to before.
Perhaps the best part of this exercise has been how proud and enthusiastic Leonsis is about the progress, and how he’s been responding individually to fans on X in the mentions. For the owner who advertised his email address and purportedly answered most messages he received (even mine when I was a teenager), his responsiveness to fans on this part of the project is perhaps the best part.
