From the Heart

As some of you may know, my husband Abe and I built two sports arenas during our careers.  The first, Capital Centre, was opened in 1973 and was a wonderful, state-of-the-art building in its time.  Once Capital Centre began showing its age, it was time to find a new place for our teams – the Capitals and the Bullets (now Wizards) – to play as well as host the hundreds of concerts and events that were held at the arena each year. We made the difficult decision to once again build a state-of-the-art arena, this time in the heart of Washington, D.C.  Verizon Center was born.
 
What’s it like to build and own a place like the Verizon Center? What’s it like to build and own a place like the Capital Centre?  What’s it like to sell a place like the Verizon Center?
 
These are huge buildings, places where 20,000 people come regularly to games and other huge events. As I write this, I still can’t believe that my husband and I did this; it is huge! Where did we get the guts to do these huge things?  Now, I ask myself these questions; questions I never asked when we did them. But we did and what a thrill to plan and execute the projects. And the thrill of completing them and then enjoying all of the activities that took place in them as well as the thrill of knowing that there were no buildings like that in Washington before them.
 
Planning for the Capital Centre was so much fun because everything was new to the Washington Community. Now for the first time, there would be Inaugural Galas and other events around the Inauguration, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Bush and Obama.
 
We learned so much from doing these events for twenty-five years so that by the time we designed and built the Verizon Center, which would now be in the city, we added features which could accommodate such major events. For example, the private elevator that could take the President straight up to our private suite
 
I also always got a kick out of watching the “turnover” from hockey, ice floor, to basketball floor in a couple of hours.  It’s truly an amazing transformation.
 
But, the best part…and still is:  the staff that made all this happen without a hitch; working all night sometimes.
 
And now, though I no longer own the Verizon Center, if I ever feel like I may need some hugs, I know where I can count on getting lots of them!  Recently, when I have gone there for games, I can’t walk ten feet without someone hugging me or grabbing my hand.  The staff has always been a wonderful group of people.  They really became a part of our family!
 
What a thrill for me and how proud I am of my husband putting together a “team” to make all this come together so millions of people can come there and enjoy the events never realizing the effort it takes.