Fort Wayne’s Mad Ants basketball team leaving for Noblesville

According to Pacers Sports and Entertainment, its NBA G league team the Mad Ants, will be moving from Fort Wayne to Noblesville next season.

The Mad Ants, named in part as homage to General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, have played at the Allen County Memorial Coliseum since 2007.

The team was purchased by the Pacers organization in 2015.

The NBA’s G-league – known as the D-league until 2017 – is identified as the second-most prominent men’s basketball league in the world, according to the NBA.

To accommodate the move, the City of Noblesville plans to build a 3,400 seat, 85,000-square-foot arena on its east side which would open for the 2024-2025 season.

The Noblesville City Council will vote on the proposal Tuesday evening.

Fort Wayne city officials expressed disappointment in the move, and said the city remains an outstanding home for minor league sports. They said they anticipate interest from other basketball teams who may want to relocate here.

Fort Wayne’s history with professional basketball is long. The Zoellner Pistons, one of the earliest professional teams in the National Basketball League, was here in 1941. The team later moved to Detroit, where it remains as the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.