WNFA Moves Dream's Finals Games 3, 4 to State Farm Arena — SkimNews
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- Atlanta Dream will host WNBA Finals Games 3 and 4 at State Farm Arena, the 17,000-plus-seat home of the Atlanta Hawks, moving out of Gateway Center Arena at College Park which holds just 3,500 fans
- Game 3 was bumped from Oct. 22 to Oct. 21 after a Sombr concert was already booked at State Farm that night; Game 4 stays Oct. 24, requiring the Hawks to shift their Oct. 24 tipoff against Houston from 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
- WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the move ensures the first WNBA Finals game in the Atlanta market since 2013 and dramatically expands seating for Southeast fans
- Hawks CEO Steve Koonin credited Hawks owner Tony Ressler with driving the cross-stakeholder coordination, noting alignment with State Farm, the league, and TV networks to clear the arena
- Golden State's Valkyries faced a parallel conflict at Chase Center, where a Doja Cat concert on Game 2 night (Oct. 19) was rescheduled to Oct. 25 to clear the 18,064-seat venue
- Dream majority owner Larry Gottesdiener called the result 'what the players and the fans deserve,' noting the franchise had already played six regular-season games and all three playoff games at State Farm this year
Why it matters: The Dream swap a 3,500-seat venue for a 17,000-plus-seat arena, turning a potential walk-up series into a sellout-scale event — Atlanta's first WNBA Finals home game in 12 years — and the league coordinated with the Hawks, State Farm, and TV partners to bend a packed arena calendar around it.
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