WNBA Finals Games 3 and 4 move to State Farm Arena
Key takeaways
- WNBA Finals Games 3 and 4 will be played at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
- Game 3 moves one day earlier, to Wednesday, October 21 at 8 p.m. ET.
- The move saves Atlanta from hosting the Finals in a 3,500-seat arena.
The WNBA Finals have a new home for two big games. Games 3 and 4 will be played at State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta. The league announced the move on Tuesday, October 13.
The change fixes a problem that had hung over the Finals for days. The Atlanta Dream will now host their home games in a big arena. They will not have to squeeze the Finals into a tiny one.
The Finals match the Atlanta Dream against the Golden State Valkyries. The Valkyries are the No. 2 seed.
The Dream are the No. 4 seed.
A seed is a ranking based on the regular season. The higher seed gets home advantage.
The series is best-of-seven. That means the first team to win four games takes the title. The series opens on Saturday in San Francisco.
Game 2 will also be played there, on Monday.
What happened
The WNBA announced a new plan on Tuesday. Game 3 and Game 4 will move to State Farm Arena. State Farm Arena is the home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.
It holds 17,044 fans for basketball.
Game 3 moves one day earlier. It was set for Thursday, October 22. It will now be played on Wednesday, October 21.
The start time stays the same: 8 p.m. ET.
Game 4 stays on Saturday, October 24. But the start time moves up. It will tip off at 1 p. m.
ET.
The old start time was 3:30 p.m. ET.
The schedule shift solved two clashes. A Sombr concert was booked at State Farm Arena on October 22. Moving Game 3 to October 21 cleared that clash.
The Hawks also play at home on October 24. They open their season against the Houston Rockets that night. The Hawks agreed to push their game back by 30 minutes.
Their tipoff will now be at 8:30 p. m. ET.
That leaves room for Game 4 in the afternoon.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert thanked all sides for the fix. She said the change of venue greatly expands the seating capacity. She said it will give fans an amazing atmosphere.
She also noted that it will be the first WNBA Finals game in the Atlanta market since 2013.
Dream majority owner Larry Gottesdiener welcomed the news too. He said this is what the players and the fans deserve. He thanked all the groups that worked to fix the clashes.
Tickets for Games 3 and 4 go on sale to the public on Friday at 10 a.m. ET.
Why it matters
The size gap between the two arenas tells the whole story. The Dream's normal home is Gateway Center Arena. It sits in College Park, near Atlanta.
It holds just 3,500 fans for basketball games. That is the smallest capacity in the WNBA.
State Farm Arena holds about 17,000 fans. That is nearly five times as many seats. Thousands more fans will now get a chance to watch the Finals live.
The Dream have played at State Farm Arena before. They played six of their 22 home games there this season. The other 16 were at Gateway Center.
The Dream have also played all three of their playoff games at State Farm Arena. They drew an average of 9,695 fans per game for those three games, according to Reuters.
The contrast with the other Finals venue is stark. The Valkyries play at Chase Center in San Francisco. That arena holds 18,064 fans.
It is one of the biggest in the league. If Atlanta had stayed at Gateway Center, the two Finals venues would have been worlds apart.
The series format makes the home games count. The Finals use a 2-2-1-1-1 format. That means the Valkyries host Games 1 and 2.
The Dream host Games 3 and 4. The Valkyries host Game 5. The Dream would host Game 6.
The Valkyries would host Game 7 if the series goes that far.
Atlanta's road to the Finals ran through New York. The Dream beat the New York Liberty in the semifinals. That win put them in their first Finals since 2013.
The home crowd will be a big part of their push for the title.
The fix also shows how much planning goes into big sports events. Arenas host concerts, NBA games, and WNBA games. Dates often clash.
It took days of talks to sort this one out. The Dream even looked at other venues. One backup plan was McCamish Pavilion at Georgia Tech.
That arena holds 8,600 fans. In the end, the talks worked, and the big arena won out.
What happens next
The series starts on Saturday in San Francisco. The Valkyries host Game 1 at Chase Center. Game 2 follows on Monday at the same venue.
Then the series moves to Atlanta. Game 3 is on Wednesday, October 21 at 8 p. m.
ET. Game 4 is on Saturday, October 24 at 1 p. m.
ET.
Both games will be at State Farm Arena.
One question is still open. Game 6 is set for Thursday, October 29. Right now, it is still listed at Gateway Center Arena.
The Hawks host the Cleveland Cavaliers that same night at State Farm Arena. That is a fresh clash. Talks may continue about whether Game 6 can move too, according to USA Today.
For now, fans in Atlanta can plan with certainty for Games 3 and 4. They will watch the Finals in a big arena, with a big crowd, on a big stage. The Dream earned that stage.
The league, the Hawks, and the arena staff made it happen.
American sports fans have had a busy week. The Bills edged the Rams on Monday Night Football in the NFL. Now the WNBA Finals take centre stage.
Atlanta will hope the home crowd can push the Dream to a title. The first test comes on Saturday, on the road in San Francisco.
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