Capital City Go-Go

Named after the drums, built on a hospital campus

The Capital City Go-Go were founded in 2018 as the Washington Wizards' G League affiliate, and took their name from go-go, the percussion-driven funk that came out of Washington between the mid-1960s and the late 1970s. The club is owned by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, plays in navy blue, red and white, and sits in the Eastern Conference. Michael Winger is president; Amber Nichols became general manager in 2021, the second woman appointed to that job at a G League club after Tori Miller at the College Park Skyhawks.

Home is a small building with an unusual address. It opened on 22 September 2018 at 1100 Oak Drive SE, in Congress Heights, on the St Elizabeths East campus — the grounds of the former federal psychiatric hospital east of the Anacostia. It cost $69m, holds about 4,200 people and 4,111 for basketball, is owned by the District of Columbia and operated by Events DC, and houses the Wizards' practice facility under the same roof. The Washington Mystics moved in for the 2019 WNBA season. It was the Entertainment and Sports Arena from 2018 until 2025, when naming rights passed to CareFirst. The economics were tight from the start: Events DC underestimated the cost of running the place, and in 2019 its board signed off more than $1m to cover the shortfall.

Three seasons that produced call-ups rather than trophies

The team Saddler inherits was shaped by Cody Toppert, who coached three seasons and left with an 85-65 record, three consecutive playoff appearances, two trips to the G League Showcase, a franchise-record 31 wins in 2024-25 and 13 players sent up on NBA call-ups. He was promoted into Brian Keefe's Wizards staff for 2026-27, which is roughly the point of the job.

The on-court record is less tidy than the call-up count. In 2024-25 the Go-Go went 20-14 and were knocked out of the quarterfinals by Maine. The franchise's best regular-season mark is still the 21-10 of 2021-22, which ended in a conference semifinal defeat by Raptors 905.

Last season brought 19-17 and sixth place in the East, and then the best single night the club has had. As the sixth seed the Go-Go went to Cleveland in early April 2026 and beat the third-seeded Charge 126-123, Alondes Williams scoring 39 points on 12-of-21 shooting with nine rebounds, six steals and two blocks — postseason highs for him. Chris Livingston added 27 points and nine rebounds, Kadary Richmond 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists, Skal Labissière 18 and eight, and Julian Reese 10 points with 11 rebounds. The run ended in the next round against the second-seeded Greensboro Swarm, who kept going and won the championship, sweeping Stockton 2-0 with a 119-104 win in game two on 10 April. Tosan Evbuomwan was Finals MVP.

A 31-year-old from down the road

Saddler was named head coach on 6 July 2026. He is 31, and among the youngest in the league: the Wizards' July release called him the second-youngest head coach in the G League, while the club's own staff announcement in November described him as the youngest this season. Either way he arrives from a sitting college head coaching job rather than from an NBA bench, which is the less common route.

He spent three seasons at Nicholls State from 2023 to 2026 and went 54-46 overall, 38-22 in conference play, with two 20-win seasons. Before that he was director of player personnel at Maryland in 2022-23 under Kevin Willard. He is a Washington-area product returning home.

The full staff was published on 3 November 2026: Ashton Gibbs as associate head coach, with Jason Thompson, Pete Fusilero and Max Hooper as assistants and Drew Dowell as video coordinator. Dr Palak Ghetiya is head athletic trainer and Dr Lina Ibrahim assistant athletic trainer and physical therapist. The release carried no quotes, only biographies — a fair indication of how this franchise communicates.

Trading down, then up, for a seven-footer

The roster work this autumn ran through the G League draft on 24 October 2026. The Go-Go moved the eighth overall pick, second-round picks in 2027 and 2028 and the returning-player rights to Akoldah Gak in order to acquire Isaiah Carr, who had gone second overall to the Motor City Cruise. Carr is 7ft and 235lb, played at Grand Canyon in 2022-23, Denver from 2023 to 2025 and Drake last season, and averaged 4.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks across 87 college appearances.

With their own selections the club took Barry Evans at 13 and Benny Williams at 16. Evans is 6ft 8in and 215lb, finished at VCU after spells at Bryant and St Bonaventure, averaged 6.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists over 134 games with 93 starts, and was part of the VCU side that won the Atlantic 10 tournament in 2025-26. Williams is 6ft 10in and 217lb, spent three seasons at Syracuse from 2021 to 2024 and a final year at UCF, and averaged 4.4 points and 2.8 rebounds.

The rest of the roster will come down from upstairs, as it always does. The Wizards' two-way contracts for 2026-27 belong to Jamir Watkins and Felix Okpara, and the wing Will Riley, on the Wizards' camp roster this autumn, was assigned to the Go-Go last season and averaged 28 points on 44 per cent shooting in two games there. Assignments of that kind are the reason the better-known names on a Go-Go team sheet tend to change week to week.

The calendar, split in two

The schedule was released on 28 August 2026 and follows the league's two-part structure: a 14-game Tip-Off Tournament, then a 36-game regular season. The Go-Go opened on Friday 6 November with a two-game road series at the Delaware Blue Coats. The home opener is Saturday 14 November against Raptors 905, who return on 16 November. Tip-Off opponents are Delaware, Raptors 905, Greensboro, Maine, Long Island, Westchester and College Park.

The regular season proper starts on Sunday 27 December at Maine, with the first home regular-season game on Monday 4 January against the Wisconsin Herd. The longest road trip runs six games from 26 February to 14 March, and the longest homestand is five games from 16 to 25 March, which closes the season. The top eight in each conference reach the playoffs, which finish with the Finals in April 2027. Home tickets are sold directly by the club by phone and email as well as through Ticketmaster.

What a night in Congress Heights is actually like

Doors open at 6pm through the main Cherry Street entrance and tip-off is at 7pm, which puts most nights back out on the street a little after nine. The club's opening-night guide has FutureBandDC playing live go-go through the game, including a halftime set, special player introductions and a national anthem performance, plus the return of Wheel of Tosses, in which fans try to catch mystery items. On nights without a band the in-house DJ runs a go-go dance party through the third quarter. Early arrivals get a magnet schedule.

The money is modest by professional basketball standards. Single tickets start at $15 and group rates at $10 a head; the Capital City Sips packages bundle courtside or general admission seating with unlimited drinks, Union Night pairs discounted tickets with merchandise, and the 202 Courtside Lounge is the premium option. Stadium Journey, whose review was updated in May 2025, put box-office prices at $10-35 with Ticketmaster fees adding roughly half again, and found lower-level resale seats often going for $6-10. Half-smokes were $10, frozen chocolate bananas $4 and beer $9-11. Congress Heights station on the Green Line is about five minutes away on foot; on-site parking is $10 and has to be reserved.

The same review scored the experience 3.0 out of 5, and the reason was not the basketball. There is chair-back seating on all four sides and two video boards, but the building is rarely close to full and the noise comes in pockets: most of the crowd, the reviewer wrote, "aren't all that into it for most of the game". The conclusion was that the club's real problem is that too few people in Washington know the team exists or where the arena is. Fans who do turn up tend to report the opposite side of a 4,200-seat room — close sightlines, cheap floor seats and players who come over afterwards.