The Capitals 2014-2015 was my first season as a full season ticket holder as the previous 5 years I had been a 10 game partial plan holder. I was pretty lucky to come in my first year with seats in section 407 Row J, seats 16 & 17. The seats are pretty good. While I would like to move a little more to the left in maybe section 405 and/or move down a few rows, the group of STH I sit with area the most awesome group of people and makes winning and losing at the Verizon Center so much better. So when I got the email to attend my slot for the select a seat event I wanted to go and see what it was all about. I wasn’t really going with the expectation to move.
I arrived at the Verizon Center around 6:35pm. My slot was from 7p – 7:30pm but since I work 3 stops from the Gallery Place metro stop, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get there early and figure out what and where to be. The entrance to the event was next to the box office on the main F street entrance between 6th and 7th street. They had two tables set up for check in and to the left was about 50 seats set up. They had free popcorn and sodas to the right, so I sat and waited patiently for things to begin. We had been given the standard floor chart/pricing plan so that information was not new to me. By 6:50 there were probably 75-100 people in the area and one of the people in charge began his speech. Thanking everyone for showing up and explaining how things worked:
- Any seat with a white paper on it was up for grabs. Once you find seats you like you found one of the Capitals reps (dressed in a red Capitals polo).
- The Capitals rep would sign the sheet
- You would then take the sheet(s) to the Guest Services area outside of section 102 and 402 (or right around there I can’t remember the actual section numbers).
He then let us loose, and most people went up to the 400 section. Since I didn’t want to leave my STH group in 407, I went directly there to see what was available. As I expected, anything in the first 10 rows were blank of white papers. There wasn’t really a whole lot to choose from which was fine by me. My understanding is that this event was over two days. I think Monday or Tuesday was for the STH that were long time STH (1974-2000). I think the 7pm – 7:30pm was for those who became STH within the past 5 years. So unfortunately all the good seats were taken early. I’m patient though, I know what I’m looking for and will continue to go to these events each year and the perfect seats for me will become available. Until then I’m going to Rock the Red in section 407 with my group.
My overall opinion of the event was pretty good. I would give it a B+. The staff was friendly, it was pretty organized. The only thing I would ding them on was that they were giving out free Capitals t-shirts. They said they were for when you were on your way out but some of the people were giving them out when people came in. Made it very confusing.
Go CAPS!
