Capital One Arena Rolls Out Red Carpet For Trump Rally

Maybe “patience” wouldn’t be the expected word of the day when it came to hosting a last-minute presidential rally and inauguration at a big-league sports arena in the nation’s capital.
But that was indeed the case on Monday, when the 20,000-capacity Capital One Arena hosted an inaugural viewing event for President Donald J. Trump’s swearing-in at the Capitol Rotunda and staged an accompanying parade after inclement weather forced the scheduled proceedings indoors.
The Downtown D.C. arena pulled it off with 60-hours’ notice and the world watching. The venue also hosted Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rally on Jan. 19.
Situated in the nation’s capital, the arena is routinely made available for inauguration events, but this was different.
“There is some precedent with us hosting Presidential events and visits in our building and we have a great blueprint on how to do that,” says Jordan Silberman, president of venues for Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of Capital One Arena and four other venues throughout the D.C. area. “But this was a unique circumstance and a unique presidency and we wanted to make sure they knew that our building was available to them.”
The venue team had been planning the Jan. 19 rally since December, but on Wednesday, Jan. 15 started getting inquiries about renting the facility for Jan. 20.
“It raised some eyebrows,” says Silberman. “We started looking at the weather and saw the temperatures plummeting and reasons for concern, but in no world did I think that we were going to be hosting the parade in the facility.”
That changed at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 17, when he got a call from the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
“They kindly requested to use the facility on Monday saying that the President was making a decision because he was concerned about the health and well-being of the supporters in D.C., to move the parade indoors,” he said.
Silberman’s next call was to Ted Leonsis, founder, chairman, managing partner, and CEO at MSE, which owns the Washington Capitals and Wizards. “I knew what the answer was going to be, but it was a resounding, ‘Yes,’” says Silberman. “We were going to do our part to help make history and be helpful to the nation’s capital.”
Capital One Arena serves as the home of the NHL’s Washington Capitals, NBA’s Washington Wizards and the NCAA’s Georgetown men’s basketball, in addition to hosting a range of concerts and family shows. The facility, which is undergoing an extensive $800 million renovation, averages 220 events per year.
So, it’s no surprise there were other events on the calendar, including a Georgetown basketball game on Friday, Jan. 17, followed by a sold-out Capitals game against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, Jan.18.
Due to the quick turnaround, the arena’s 35-person changeover crew jumped into action as soon as the final buzzer sounded on the Capitals’ 4-1 victory. They converted the arena in 3.5 hours, something that usually takes six to eight hours, in order for the U.S. Secret Service to sweep the area before production load-in could begin for the rally, which opened to supporters at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 19. The arena conversion process reignited at 6:30 p.m. Sunday to begin preparations for Monday.
To cap the busy weekend, the changeover crew was called back into action after the parade in preparation for Monster Jam’s three-day residency this weekend. In addition to staff being relocated in preparation for building construction.
“We definitely stacked two tough events on top of each other,” says Silberman. “It’s impressive for our team to manage all of this and do all this juggling around our schedule.”
Looking at the numbers for both inauguration events, Capital One Arena had:
- 1,000 MSE, Aramark Sports + Entertainment and Contemporary Services Corporation (CSC) staff on hand.
- 2,000 hours provided by local International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) to prep the arena throughout the weekend.
- 20,000 square feet of red carpet covering the arena floor provided by Freeman.
- 70,000 bottles of water, 5,000 chicken tenders, 5,000 soft drinks, 4,000 hamburgers served by Aramark, Capital One Arena’s exclusive food and beverage partner.
The parade had an estimated 1,000 participants, including three marching bands.
“I was standing on the floor as some of them walked past me and I was like ‘When does this band end? How are we going to fit all these people on the floor?’” remarks Silberman. “We hosted backstage and every nook and cranny in the building on top of making space for every dignitary and all the areas for Secret Service. It was quite the undertaking.”

The inauguration event’s attendees included dignitaries, former Presidents and their families, the First Family and even VIPs like tech billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
Silberman had to secure 50 hotel rooms for staff and secured parking outside the established security perimeter. All screening happened outside the facility in a perimeter that was several blocks away.
“The word of the day I put out in our communication to all of our staff was ‘patience,’” Silberman said. “It was going to take a lot of patience for this event to be a success.”
It took some ingenuity, too.
After it was deemed that the chair Trump would use to sign his first executive orders didn’t possess the necessary gravitas, a search ensued for a replacement.
Three options were located — one from Leonsis’ office conference room, one from another conference room and one from the owners club.
The red one from the club made the cut.
“I made sure I got the chair,” Silberman said with a laugh. “And I’ve taken pictures to authenticate it.”
