1) SkyDome (Toronto Raptors)

When it was built in 1989, the state-of-the-art SkyDome was the last venue specifically intended to host both football and baseball. Basketball wasn’t in the plans but became a necessity in 1995, when the expansion Raptors had to wait for their permanent home to be constructed. They wound up spending four seasons in the cavernous SkyDome, where the subpar performances on the court matched the second rate accommodations in the stands. Despite the SkyDome’s awful sight lines and sepulchral seating layout (players claimed they could occasionally feel a cold breeze on the court and could hear individual fans coughing), its spacious capacity allowed the Raptors to sell more tickets in their inaugural season than any team besides the Bulls. They certainly weren’t pulling in the crowds with their performance, as the team finished with a 100-266 record over those four years. Perhaps the only memorable moment in SkyDome basketball history came in March of 1996, when the Raptors stunned Michael Jordan and the 72-10 Bulls. Tracy McGrady best summed it up when asked if he would miss playing in the SkyDome and responding “not at all…that place is one of the worst.”

2) North Side High School Gym (Fort Wayne Pistons)

The Detroit Pistons settled into the Little Caesars Arena in 2017, with modern LED displays, a massive scoreboard, and seating for over 20,000. It’s a far cry from their original dwelling, a high school gymnasium in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Founded as a semi-pro team in 1937 by a piston foundry owner named Fred Zollner, the Pistons joined the NBL in 1941 and then moved to the NBA in 1948. In their first four NBA seasons, the Pistons’ home court was North Side High School Gym, which seated about 3,000. Though the facilities were obviously lacking (especially compared to contemporaries Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden), it did provide a distinct home court advantage, as visiting players were often rattled by the claustrophobic location of fans. In the ’52-’53 season, Fort Wayne moved into the newly opened War Memorial Coliseum, which could seat over 8,000. Five years later they relocated completely to Detroit, settling in at the legendary Olympia Stadium. North Side High School Gym was the Pistons’ smallest home court but it ultimately wasn’t their strangest, as they would also often schedule games in Florida in the ’50s after Zollner established a winter home in Miami.

3) Loyola Field House (New Orleans Jazz)

When the Jazz franchise was getting started in ’74-’75 in New Orleans, they had lined up a great name, a snazzy logo, a local legend at coach (Scotty Robertson), and a superstar in the lineup (Pete Maravich). One thing they lacked was a suitable home court. The city of New Orleans had never previously had a need for a top flight basketball arena and had no interest in helping the new NBA franchise build one. The Jazz thus started play at the Loyola Field House, former home of Loyola University, which had recently dropped their athletics program. With seating for only 6,800 and shoddy upkeep in its recent dormancy, the Loyola Field House proved instantly unsustainable. The Jazz wound up playing many of their home games in the Municipal Coliseum, which was also underwhelming but at least had slightly more seating, then moved for the ’75-’76 season to the cavernous Superdome. The cumbersome lease terms from the Superdome turned out to be a financial disaster for the franchise (of note: they had to pay a fee just to keep the lights on during games, and for several weeks every spring they were bumped due to Mardi Gras festivities) and directly led to their 1979 relocation to Salt Lake City.

4) Hartford Civic Center (Boston Celtics)

For two decades starting in 1975, the Celtics would venture 100 miles southwest to the Hartford Civic Center for three or four home games per season. Why? Supposedly, the relationship was kept up to prevent the rival Knicks from infringing in New England for neutral site games. The trip was often a begrudging one for players, especially in the late ’80s when aging stars like Larry Bird would complain about the lengthy bus rides’ effect on back and knee injuries. When the Celtics’ exclusive local television rights in Hartford were discontinued in 1994, the team’s relationship with the arena followed suit. There was also the matter of the shiny new FleetCenter (now called TD Garden) opening to host the Celtics starting in ’95-’96. While the Hartford Civic Center’s capacity and accommodations were relatively comparable to the ancient Boston Garden, it paled in comparison to the newest Boston arena. While the Celtics haven’t played a regular season game in Hartford since 1995, they did return in 2009 for a series of preseason contests. The Hartford Civic Center is now called the XL Center and continues to regularly host men’s and women’s college basketball.

“…the AdventHealth Arena has an unassuming facade, a seating capacity of 8,000, and typically is hosting cheerleading and dance competitions. But in the summer of 2020, it became the epicenter of the sports universe”

5) Rutgers Athletic Center (New Jersey Nets)

With its unique, trapezoidal design, indelible nickname (“The RAC”), and deafening acoustics, the Rutgers Athletic Center (now called the Jersey Mike’s Arena) remains one of the most renowned home courts in college basketball. But its seating capacity of just 8,000 and lack of modern facilities render it impractical for NBA basketball. But it was the home of the Nets for four seasons starting in ’77-’78 because, like Snake Plissken, they had to escape from New York. After merging from the ABA in 1976, the Nets spent their first NBA season playing in Long Island but also paying an exorbitant “invasion fee” to the Knicks. Cash-strapped and desperate, they moved across the bridge to Piscataway, New Jersey, settling in at the RAC while the new Meadowlands Arena was being constructed in East Rutherford. Forced to sell Julius Erving at the merger just to stay afloat, the Nets remained one of the worst teams in the NBA during their time at Rutgers, finishing below .500 in all four seasons.

6) Georgia Dome (Atlanta Hawks)

On March 27, 1998, the NBA attendance record was set and it surprisingly involved the Hawks. When they hosted Michael Jordan and the Bulls at the Georgia Dome that night, 62,046 fans flocked to witness what was expected to be one of the final games of the legend’s career. It was one of about 75 games the Hawks played between 1997 and 1999 at the Georgia Dome, which was the second largest domed stadium in the world when it opened in 1992. With their previous home, The Omni, literally falling apart, the Hawks opted to take up temporary residency alongside the NFL’s Falcons under the dome while waiting for a new arena to be built. Thanks to a roster centered around Mookie Blaylock and Dikembe Mutombo, the Hawks were solid in their two seasons in the Georgia Dome, and the site got to host multiple playoff games each year. But the cavernous interior of the stadium was often eerily empty, with the Hawks often drawing only about half the capacity that the spacious stadium offered. As for that record setting night, even that had a caveat. The Georgia Dome actually had a stated capacity of 57,000 but they opened up a few thousand extremely cheap seats just for that night with the specific intention of breaking the previous attendance record. In addition to two years of Hawks games, the Georgia Dome also hosted the finals of the 1996 Olympics basketball tournament and both the men’s and women’s NCAA Final Four. It was demolished in 2017 to make way for Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

7) AdventHealth Arena (various teams in “The Bubble”)

Opened in 2018 as part of the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on the campus of Walt Disney World, the AdventHealth Arena has an unassuming facade, a seating capacity of 8,000, and typically is hosting cheerleading and dance competitions. But in the summer of 2020, it became the epicenter of the sports universe. With the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the planet, the NBA needed an elegant solution to resume and complete its ’19-’20 season. It found one just outside of Orlando, where Disney could safely host the players, coaches, trainers and media members, while staging crowd-free games. Thus, the normally bland, utilitarian AdventHealth Arena was transformed into a technological wonderland, with virtual crowds, state-of-the-art graphics, and pumped-in sound effects. Some seeding games and early playoff contests were played at other arenas on the campus, but AdventHealth was the central location, hosting nearly all the nationally televised games, including the entire Conference Finals and NBA Finals. Ever since LeBron James and the Lakers clinched their championship in the building, the AdventHealth Arena has resumed its more modest proceedings of youth dance and cheering events.