The Atlanta Dream will play their WNBA Finals home games at Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia, a 3,500-seat venue, after scheduling conflicts shut them out of the much larger State Farm Arena downtown, according to Yahoo Sports. The Dream WNBA Finals venue situation leaves the team hosting a championship series in a building roughly a fifth the size of its usual downtown home.
State Farm Arena seats 17,044 for basketball, more than four times Gateway’s capacity. The gap matters because the Dream used State Farm for six of their 22 regular-season home games and all three home playoff games leading into the Finals, per Yahoo Sports.
The Main Development
The Dream’s three Finals home games fall on Oct. 22, Oct. 24 and Oct. 29, days that all clash with previously booked events at State Farm Arena, according to Yahoo Sports. A Sombr concert occupies the arena on Oct. 22, the date of Game 3. The Atlanta Hawks have regular-season games scheduled there on Oct. 24 against the Houston Rockets and on Oct. 29 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, conflicting directly with Games 4 and 6.
The Dream tried to secure a bigger building elsewhere in the Atlanta metro area but could not make it work, according to USA Today. Sporting News reported the team explored Gas South Arena in Duluth, located nearly 30 miles from downtown Atlanta with a capacity of 13,000, but negotiations hit a roadblock. Other options floated included Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion, which seats 8,600, and the Georgia State Convocation Center, which holds 7,500, according to ESPN.
What It Means For The Dream And Their Fans
Hosting a Finals series at a 3,500-seat arena is a steep drop from the scale the Dream experienced in the playoffs at State Farm Arena. Dream guard Rhyne Howard, speaking to USA Today, addressed playing in that building during the postseason. “We didn’t have playoff games [at State Farm Arena] last year, but we had a couple of games there, and they felt like playoff games,” Howard said. “So I think for us to have had those during the season and have the outcome that we had, I think it helps us get ready for this environment.”
The last time a WNBA Finals featured a venue with fewer than 8,000 seats, outside the 2020 COVID-19 bubble season, was 2019, when the Washington Mystics played three Finals games at the 4,200-seat CareFirst Arena. The Dream themselves hosted a 2013 Finals game at what is now Gas South Arena in Duluth.
Their Finals opponent faces no such constraint. The Golden State Valkyries will host Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 at Chase Center in San Francisco, home of the NBA’s Warriors, which seats 18,064 for basketball.
Context: A Venue In Flux Since 2021
The Dream have split time between multiple Atlanta-area arenas over the years. The franchise played at State Farm Arena, then known as Philips Arena, from its 2008 inception through 2016, moved to Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion during a 2017-2018 refurbishment, returned to the rebranded State Farm Arena in 2019, and has been based at Gateway Center Arena since 2021. The Dream played 16 of their 22 regular-season home games at Gateway this season.
That arrangement changes soon. Morgan Shaw Parker, president and COO of the Dream, announced the team will play all home games at State Farm Arena starting in the 2027 season, when each WNBA team will have 25 home games under an expanded 50-game regular-season schedule. “This is an exciting next chapter for the Atlanta Dream, and a direct reflection of the exciting style of play that is Dream basketball, the passion of our fans and the incredible growth of this franchise,” Shaw Parker said.
“Our players and our fans have transformed Gateway Center Arena into the most exciting experience in the WNBA. State Farm Arena gives us the opportunity to welcome thousands of additional fans while creating an even bigger stage for women’s basketball in Atlanta. We look forward to bringing the energy, traditions and spirit of Gateway with us to the heart of our city.”
What’s Next
Game 3 of the WNBA Finals is scheduled for Oct. 22 at Gateway Center Arena, followed by Game 4 on Oct. 24 and a potential Game 6 on Oct. 29 at the same site if the series goes that long. The move to State Farm Arena as the Dream’s full-time home arrives in 2027.
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