Reminiscing about Abe Pollin’s Capital idea: The Capital Centre

When Arnold Seigel was 11, another boy would occasionally come to his house in Northwest Washington so they could take Hebrew lessons together from the same teacher. The two kids became fast friends, and both ended up attending Roosevelt High.

“He went toward business, and I went toward science,” said Arnold, who studied engineering and physics and has a PhD from the University of Amsterdam.

The other kid was Abe Pollin, real estate developer, owner of Washington’s NBA and NHL franchises, and the man who built what was once the premier sports and entertainment venue in the area: the Capital Centre in Landover, Md.

The Capital Centre opened in 1973, and if you flip through the souvenir dedication booklet printed back then, you will see Arnold listed as a “special consultant.”

“I had free rein with Abe,” Arnold, 93, told me the other day. “He said, ‘Do whatever you need to do.’ ”

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