Landover, MD
85 000
The Capital Centre was an indoor arena located in Landover, Maryland, unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland; a suburb of Washington, D.C. The arena was the home of the Washington Bullets of the NBA, the Washington Capitals of the NHL and the Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team and sat 18,756 for basketball and 18,130 for hockey. It was completed in 1973.
During 1993, the air carrier USAir purchased the naming rights for the building and the stadium was known as USAir Arena. After the airline rebranded itself in 1996, the name changed to US Airways Arena. The arena reverted to its original name of Capital Centre after the airline dropped its naming rights and its primary tenants moved to the MCI Center (now named the Verizon Center).
The arena hosted games of the NBA Finals in 1975. The ACC men's basketball tournament was held there in 1976, 1981, and 1987. A boxing World Heavyweight Championship bout took place at the venue on April 30, 1976, The arena also was home to a few epic NHL Playoff games, including the 1987 Easter Epic.
The Capital Centre was outfitted with a sophisticated in-house video system, technology not yet common in most 1970s-era arenas. As a result, a number of videos and concert recordings, many of them bootlegged, have been released over the years. The arena also hosted family friendly events, such as the Harlem Globetrotters, Circus America and Ice Capades, as well as numerous graduation ceremonies for high schools in Prince George's County.
The Capital Centre was imploded on December 15, 2002, to make way for The Boulevard at the Capital Centre, a town center-style shopping mall that opened in 2003.
