Pacers moving G-League Mad Ants to Noblesville

New facility closer to Indy will be the new home for Pacers G-League team.

The Pacers made a surprise announcement on Monday afternoon when they revealed that their NBA G-League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, will relocate to Noblesville, a suburb just north of Indy.

While the move will take effect immediately, the team’s new home which will include a new mascot (long live the Mad Ants) won’t be ready until the 2024-25 season. It appears the team will play at Gainbridge Fieldhouse next season which should be nice for the G-Leaguers and even better for the two-way players on the Pacers roster.

Once located in Noblesville, players assigned to the G-League will still make a trek up I-69 to join the Mad Ants (or insert new nickname options here) but the trip will be considerably quicker. Instead of two-plus hours on the road, the drive to eastern Hamilton County will be 30-45 minutes depending on traffic. The addition of a third two-way slot in the NBA’s new CBA may be one factor in this move, although I’ll lean toward money and facilities tipping the scale.

“The G League is world-class basketball, and PS&E is proud to bring that to Noblesville as we strengthen our basketball operations and enhance player development in one of the state’s most vibrant and growing communities,” Pacers Sports & Entertainment CEO Rick Fuson said. “We are excited about the way this partnership fits into the bold vision for economic development Mayor Jensen has laid out, and we can’t wait to continue growing our NBA and G League fan base right here in Hamilton County.”

Noblesville will build a new 3,400-seat arena with all of the bells and whistles on a site near the MoJo Fieldhouse at Finch Creek which is already a state of the art facility with several courts and an indoor basebal/football field. It is an exceptional AAU facility, so maybe the new arena will be used for big matchups for more high profile AAU events.

Initially, I though the arena may be a good option for some big high school games throughout the year, then realized that the arena capacity would rank around 105th in capacity among high school gyms, so maybe not.

Here is an image from the press release with a rendering of the arena.