Spectator Sports

For information about spectator sports venues, including how to buy tickets and where to go to watch Washington Wizards (men's) and Mystics (women's) basketball games, the Capitals ice hockey meets, and Nationals baseball games.

The Washington Nationals Score Their Own Stadium; Meanwhile, Soccer's D.C. United Plays on at RFK

Washington, D.C.'s Major League Baseball team, the Washington Nationals, arrived on the scene in 2005, and in short order had its own stadium: the finely designed Nationals Ballpark (tel. 202/675-6287; www.nationals.com), which opened on March 30, 2008. Located in southeast Washington, the 41,000-seat stadium is helping to spark development in this old neighborhood, which now goes by the name "Capitol Riverfront," a reference to its location on the water and near the Capitol. The closest Metro stop is the Green Line's Navy Yard station (Navy Yard West exit). For tickets, go to the website, www.nationals.com; prices range from $10 to $335 (most are less than $70). Meanwhile, the men's soccer team, D.C. United (www.dcunited.com), has been around since 1994 but continues to play its matches at the creaky 55,000-seat Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, 2400 E. Capitol St. SE (tel. 202/547-9077), where the Nationals played their first two seasons (the capital had been without a Major League Baseball team since 1971). Is there a new soccer stadium in D.C.'s future? D.C. United players and their fans certainly hope so. FYI: The Washington Freedom women's soccer team (www.washingtonfreedom.com) plays its matches at a suburban Maryland stadium.