The Atlanta Dream will host Games 3 and 4 of the WNBA Finals at State Farm Arena, the home of the Atlanta Hawks, the franchise announced Tuesday morning. Game 3 has been moved from Oct. 22 to Oct. 21 while Game 4 will still be Oct. 24.
The WNBA Finals begin Saturday with the best-of-seven series between the Golden State Valkyries and the Dream, with Golden State hosting the first two games. The location of the Dream home games had been undecided as the team wanted to play in a bigger space than the Gateway Center Arena at College Park, which has been its home arena since 2021 and holds just 3,500 fans.
Six of the Dream's regular-season games this season, and all three playoff games, have been played at State Farm, which seats more than 17,000 fans. The arena was booked for a Sombr concert on Oct. 22 and Hawks regular-season games Oct. 24 and 29. Game 3 was moved a day earlier, and the Hawks changed their tipoff against the Houston Rockets from 8 p.m. to 8:30 on Oct. 24. The Valkyries and Dream will tip at 1 p.m. instead of 3:30.
"The ownership of the Atlanta Hawks, Tony Ressler, wanted us to do everything in our power to make it happen because it's great for basketball in Atlanta," said Hawks CEO Steve Koonin. "It's great for the Dream. It's great for State Farm Arena. We talked to everybody from executives at State Farm to the league to the TV networks, and everyone had major conviction: let's do everything we can to make it happen."
"The change of venue dramatically expands the seating capacity," WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement, "and ensures that the Dream will be able to provide an extraordinary atmosphere for the first WNBA Finals game to be played in the Atlanta market since 2013. We are pleased that thousands more fans across the Southeast region will have the opportunity to experience the ultimate WNBA action -- the WNBA Finals -- in person."
Dream majority owner Larry Gottesdiener added, "This is what the players and the fans deserve. We are grateful to all of the stakeholders who worked together to resolve the conflicts and make this happen."
The Valkyries, who will host Games 1, 2, and also 5 and 7 (if necessary), had their own conflict with Game 2 on Oct. 19. A Doja Cat concert was scheduled that night at Chase Center (capacity 18,064) in San Francisco. The concert was moved to Oct. 25.
ESPN's Alexa Philippou contributed to this report.