WASHINGTON — Fans who are blind or have low vision can follow Washington Wizards games by touch at Capital One Arena starting Thursday, and Washington Capitals games starting Saturday, under an accessibility program announced by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the company founded and led by Georgetown University alumnus Ted Leonsis.
Monumental, Ticketmaster and the Seattle company OneCourt said in a Nov. 11 announcement that OneCourt’s haptic tablets will be available free of charge at the arena’s Guest Services location at Section 102, beginning Nov. 12 for Wizards games and Nov. 14 for Capitals games. Fans can reserve a device ahead of their visit, the companies said.
The tablets turn live game action into vibrations that fans can track with their fingertips, while audio updates describe each play, according to the announcement.
“As we transform the fan experience at Capital One Arena, accessibility remains a top priority,” Jordan Silberman, Monumental’s president of venues, said in the release. “Bringing OneCourt to Capitals and Wizards games is an important part of that work, using innovative technology to break down barriers and make sure every fan can feel a part of the live event.”
The Capitals join the Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings among the first NHL teams to offer the technology, and Capital One Arena is one of the first venues to offer the tablets at both NBA and NHL games, according to the companies. Ticketmaster has made OneCourt tablets available at every home game for 10 NBA teams since 2025, the release said.
“Bringing OneCourt to both the Capitals and the Wizards means blind and low-vision fans across the DMV can now feel the game at Capital One Arena all season long, on the ice and on the court,” said Jerred Mace, OneCourt’s chief executive and founder. Kurt Schwartzkopf, Ticketmaster’s head of sports for North America, said the fans “will now be able to feel every fast break, every breakaway and share in the energy of the game alongside everyone else in the arena.”
OneCourt was founded in 2021 at the University of Washington and was named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026, according to the release. It is a portfolio company of NBA Launchpad, the league’s startup program.
A Hoya’s arena
Leonsis, a 1977 graduate of Georgetown College, is the founder, majority owner, chairman and chief executive of Monumental, according to Georgetown’s entrepreneurship program. Monumental owns the Capitals, the Wizards, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, the G League’s Capital City Go-Go, Capital One Arena and Monumental Sports Network, the company says.
In September, NHL owners unanimously elected Leonsis chairman of the league’s Board of Governors, succeeding Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, who had held the post for nearly 20 years, The Hockey News reported. “I love hockey and have a profound belief in its potential,” Leonsis said in the league’s announcement, adding, “we have proven in Washington how investing in a team, its fans and in a community can create a true hockey city.”
The Leonsis family also underwrites Georgetown’s main student startup contest. The Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prize, known on campus as Bark Tank, awards up to $100,000 a year to student ventures that “address problems in the world around them,” according to the university. This year’s finals were scheduled for Tuesday evening in the Hariri Building’s Lohrfink Auditorium, with eight finalist teams pitching and Leonsis listed among the expected judges. Georgetown had not posted the 2026 winners as of Thursday morning.
The prize is supported by Leonsis, his wife, Lynn, his son, Zach, who earned a Georgetown MBA in 2015 and is a Monumental executive, and his daughter, Elle, a 2014 graduate of the College, according to the university.
Featured photo: Ted Leonsis at the 68th annual Peabody Awards in New York, May 2009. (Peabody Awards / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; cropped)
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