Wizards and Capitals Fans Can Now Feel the Game

From Thursday night, the best seat upgrade at Capital One Arena will not cost anything. It sits at the Guest Services desk by Section 102: a OneCourt tablet, free to borrow, built for fans who are blind or have low vision. Put one in your lap and a Wizards fast break becomes something you follow with your hands, in the same seconds everyone around you is watching it.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment announced the program Wednesday with founding partner Ticketmaster and OneCourt, the Seattle company behind the device. The Wizards get the tablets first, starting with Thursday's home game. The Capitals follow on Saturday, when New Jersey visits — which makes Capital One Arena one of the first buildings anywhere to run the system for both an NBA and an NHL team.

Jordan Silberman, Monumental's president of venues, framed the launch as part of the arena's ongoing transformation, with accessibility at the top of the list. OneCourt founder and CEO Jerred Mace pointed at the map: fans across the DMV who are blind or have low vision can now follow the action "on the ice and on the court." Ticketmaster's Kurt Schwartzkopf, the company's head of sports for North America, delivered the whole pitch in six words: "Feel every fast break, every breakaway."

How the Tablet Follows the Game

The device is a tablet with the playing surface built into its face — a raised outline of the court or the rink, marked out so your fingers learn the map once and then stop thinking about it. Live data from the game feeds the surface in real time, and vibrations travel across it as the play does. A drive to the rim moves. A breakout heading the other way moves back. Audio runs alongside, so what a fan feels lines up with what the broadcast is saying.

For hockey, the feed leans on the league's own tracking. NHL EDGE, the puck and player tracking system, supplies the movement the tablet turns into touch. The NHL and Ticketmaster announced the hockey rollout on November 5, with Washington joined by Chicago, Colorado and Detroit.

Watch: the Tablet in a Fan's Hands

Already Running Elsewhere

Capital One Arena is an early stop, not the first. Ticketmaster has had OneCourt devices available at every home game for ten NBA teams since 2025, according to Monumental's announcement. Hockey's turn started outdoors, with the tablets debuting at the Heritage Classic in Winnipeg on October 25. Football ran a pilot in 2025 with four clubs, Seattle among them, and the device reached Super Bowl LX. OneCourt, founded at the University of Washington in 2021 and named to TIME's Best Inventions of 2026 list, counts more than 16 pro teams and over 500 games served.

How to Get One

There is no charge and no separate ticket. Tablets are picked up at Guest Services at Section 102, and Monumental is encouraging fans to reserve one ahead of game day rather than count on walk-up availability. Thursday is the first Wizards night. Saturday, with the Devils in the building, is the first Capitals night.

Arenas have spent decades getting louder and brighter. On Saturday night, for the first time in this building, some fans will feel a breakaway at the same moment the rest of the place rises for it.