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The Washington Wizards aren’t the first team to spring to mind when thinking about relocation. However, they are a weirdly nomadic franchise. While the Sacramento Kings have spent 70-some-odd years hopping around the country like a backpacker traveling Europe, the team once known as the Bullets will have spent a season in at least six different stadiums should a proposed move to Alexandria, Virginia come to fruition.
That number balloons to seven if you include the handful of games the team played in Cole Field House on the University of Maryland campus in the 1970s as it waited for the Capital Centre to open. Either way, the Washington Wizards have moved an awful lot in their history despite not really going anywhere.
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The Washington Wizards are a weirdly nomadic franchise
The Washington Wizards are that one friend you have who talks about how much they love to travel but then doesn’t actually go anywhere of note. They’ll talk about the exotic culture of the county fair two towns over. Sure, that’s traveling by definition but it’s not really traveling.
This is a basketball team that has moved around a ton over the years but doesn’t have many frequent flyer miles to show for their efforts. Whether that is a good or bad thing remains to be seen.
Chicago – International Amphitheatre
The Wizards began life as a 1961 expansion team in Chicago. This went poorly, famously so. They played in the International Amphitheatre but that wasn’t the issue. Naming themselves after the Chicago Bears biggest rivals, on the other hand, didn’t exactly endear the NBA franchise to locals. They lasted one measly season.
Chicago – Chicago Coliseum
The team hit the reset button entirely, changing its name to Zyphers and finding a new place to play in the shape of Chicago Coliseum. A rookie Don Nelson wasn’t enough to help the flagging franchise and they decided to skip town entirely. The Bulls would show up in the Windy City a couple of seasons later.
Baltimore – Baltimore Civic Center
The move from Chicago to Baltimore has to be the franchise’s equivalent to a big overnight school trip. It’s basically the only time the side traversed more than 40 miles to find a place to play. They spent ten years all told in Baltimore before deciding they wanted to be closer to Washington, D.C., but not in the city proper.
Washington D.C. – Capital Centre
The Capital Centre opened in 1973 with the short-lived Capital Bullets calling the facility 37 miles away from Baltimore home. About the Capital Bullets, they liked what the Golden State Warriors had done name wise and tried to copy it. The name didn’t take, and a year later, the franchise became the Washington Bullets.
As for the Capital Centre, well, it was your cookie-cutter arena built in the suburbs at the time. In other words, a total dump. Also, Landover, Maryland is not a particularly nice place. Getting to it from either Washington D.C. or Baltimore was a nightmare. Although, if we’re being honest, driving anywhere in that part of the country is kind of a disaster.
Washington D.C. – Capital One Arena
Somehow, the team survived in Landover for more than 20 years. Eventually, they secured a home within the Washington D.C. limits and began to play in what was then known as the MCI Center. Today, of course, it is Capital One Arena.
This has been a fine home for the franchise for 25 seasons. I’ve not been inside but did walk around it and the building is still pretty snazzy to this day. Does it need to be replaced? Probably not but that won’t stop the team from trying.
Alexandria, Virginia – New Arena
Apparently, city life hasn’t treated the Washington Wizards well and now relocation is on the cards. In true tradition, the franchise is heading further southward to Virginia. The mooted Potomac Yard site in Alexandria is six miles from Capital One Arena.
Of course, getting six miles in any direction from Washington, D.C. during rush hour is basically a nonstarter. It might as well be a world away.
Another thing about this potential new Wizards arena in Northern Virginia must be addressed. Building this at a railyards site is a terrible idea. Ask anyone in Sacramento about this. You are better served finding a different location. Just saying.
Assuming the Wizards new stadium is built, and the team starts play there in 2028, that will be the franchise’s sixth different venue in 67 seasons of existence. This is a lot. What makes this all the more peculiar is the fact all but one of these sojourns were of the cross-town variety.
This is the basketball equivalent of a college kid who lives off-campus swapping apartments every semester because something minuscule is wrong.
There is also a very interesting trend developing here. The Washington Wizards/Bullets franchise is slowly sliding down the eastern seaboard at a glacial pace. By 2060, they will have made it to Fredericksburg. In 2100, they will probably be opening another new arena in Richmond. And once the year 3000 is here, the team will likely be playing somewhere in Northern Florida. Eventually, they may end up in the Caribbean Sea.
Seriously, the Washington Wizards are a weirdly nomadic franchise, circumnavigating the globe longitudinally.
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