McDonough Gymnasium, sometimes referred to as McDonough Arena when hosting a sports or entertainment event, is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Officially known as McDonough Memorial Gymnasium, it opened in 1951 and can hold 2,200 spectators for sports events.
Before McDonough opened, the Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team had played its home games in an on-campus facility only from the 1914-15 season through the 1926-27 season, when the Hoyas played at Ryan Gymnasium. McDonough's opening allowed the Georgetown men's team to move back on campus, and it was the home court of the Hoyas for 30 seasons, from 1951-52 through 1980-81. Play at McDonough began with a 57-50 loss to Fordham on December 7, 1951 - the day before McDonough's official opening - but the team went on to post an 11-1 home record in McDonough's inaugural season. The Hoyas had a .500 or better home record in 29 of their 30 seasons at McDonough.
McDonough hosted a semifinal game of the Division I men's basketball ECAC South Region Tournament, organized by the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), in both 1977 and 1978.
To accommodate its growing fan base, the men's basketball team moved to the Capital Centre (later known as USAir Arena and later still as US Airways Arena) in Landover, Maryland, beginning with the 1981-1982 season, and early in the 1997-1998 season it moved again to the MCI Center, a new downtown Washington, D.C., arena later renamed the Verizon Center and now known as Capital One Arena. However, McDonough remained the team's practice facility until 2016, and from 1981 to 2019 it on occasion hosted Georgetown preseason and regular-season games, generally against less-well-known opponents; Big East Conference rules did not permit Georgetown to host conference games there because of the gymnasium's small capacity, and no regular-season games against well-known opponents have been held at McDonough since Georgetown played there against No. 4 Missouri in February 1982 and Big East rival Providence in January 1984. The only exceptions have been postseason games Georgetown hosted during appearances in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT); under NIT rules, schools in the tournament were required to play games on campus or at campus-owned facilities, and so the Hoyas hosted 1993 and 2005 NIT games at McDonough. A scheduling conflict at the Verizon Center, which already had booked the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus on game day, forced Georgetown to host a 2014 NIT game at McDonough. McDonough also hosted a 2019 NIT game on an evening when Capital One Arena - as the Verizon Center had been renamed in August 2017 - was in use for a Washington Capitals National Hockey League game.
To comply with public health restrictions in Washington, D.C., during the COVID-19 pandemic, the team played all of its home games during the 2020-2021 season at McDonough, the first time it had done so since the 1980-1981 season. The season included Georgetown's first home opener at McDonough since the 2001-2002 season, and by the time the team had played its first six home games it already had played more games at McDonough during a single season than any time since 1980-1981. No fans were allowed at the games, and 500 cardboard cut-outs of fans and their pets were placed in the stands instead.
