The WNBA’s race to move Game 6 of the Finals from Thursday to 12:30 p.m. ET

Moving Game 6 of the WNBA Finals to 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday highlights a league ready for a bigger stage — even if the biggest stages aren’t always ready for the WNBA.

Game 6 between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries will be played on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT – shocking timing for a Finals playoff game. A Golden State win would give them the series, 4-2. A dream win would send the series back to Golden State for Game 7 on Saturday, October 31.

Earlier this week, it became clear that there was a good chance the series would run into a timing problem for Game 6. The Dream played their playoff games at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, home of the Atlanta Hawks, which seats 17,000 people. State Farm will be the permanent home of the Dream starting next season.

Game 6 presented a problem: The Hawks are also playing at State Farm tonight. The Dream play their regular season games at Gateway Center Arena, which seats only 3,500 people.

Earlier this week, a multi-party discussion began between the teams’ ownership groups, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin and Versant, which owns the media rights to Game 6. All parties began to brainstorm ideas on where and when to play the game.

The Dream and the Hawks have different owners. The Dream released an open letter Tuesday saying it raised concerns about potentially confrontational games two months ago to the WNBA, and those concerns were ignored. Sources close to the league said it was the team’s responsibility to secure an arena in the event of a conflict. Playoff dates were released by the league in December 2025.

THE Dream never got another arena to play the game other than Gateway. The NBA was asked to help resolve the issue just days ago, according to two people familiar with the matter. The WNBA has its own programming division separate from the NBA.

Earlier this week, teams, the league and Versant leaders began proposing solutions. Many different solutions were considered, including moving the Hawks game to a different time, keeping the game at Gateway and playing a Game 6 in front of 3,500 people. They also considered moving Game 6 to Wednesday, Friday or Saturday at State Farm, then moving Game 7 to San Francisco, or finding another local arena for the game.

All options involving a day shift posed problems. The Hawks also played Wednesday. USA Network previously aired WWE’s Friday Night SmackDown during the Friday primetime television time slot and the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday afternoon. State Farm already had a concert with rapper-singer Young Miko scheduled for Saturday night. Moving Game 7 to Tuesday would clash with Election Day.

The Hawks game could not be moved to 12:30 p.m. ET given current NBA collective bargaining agreement rules, which do not allow teams to play games without a 22-hour break. The Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers play tonight at 7 p.m. ET.

There has even been talk of moving the Hawks game to another month, but given the density of the NBA schedule, too many other teams would also have to change for that to be feasible, according to people familiar with the matter.

Both teams and their players didn’t want to play at Gateway, given the importance of the game — a sentiment echoed by Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr. this week, who said moving the game was “better than having it at the YMCA.”

Both teams felt uncomfortable playing in a non-professional basketball arena such as Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Atlanta Falcons play, due to potential security concerns and a lack of knowledge of the venue, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Dream sold out State Farm and has already sold out today’s game. Golden State plays its games at the Chase Center in San Francisco, which seats 18,000 spectators. The atmosphere at Valkyries games throughout the playoffs has been comparable to that of almost every NBA Finals game. Golden State calls its arena “Ballhalla.”

Versant was initially in favor of keeping the game on Gateway to maximize prime-time viewership, according to people familiar with the matter. A competent sports television production team can make a game with just 3,500 fans seem much bigger – and louder – to a television audience.

Moving the game to 12:30 p.m. ET will likely result in a viewership loss of several hundred thousand people, according to two media executives who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation from the league. Game 2 averaged 1.33 million viewers on USA Network and Peacock. Game 6 in prime time would have definitely averaged higher.

This is the context which led to the delay in playing time. The game will be broadcast in the United States and on two other Versant networks, E! and Syfy. It will also rebroadcast at 8 p.m. ET – its original start time – on USA Network and CNBC.

Still, it’s possible that the attention given to this schedule change in recent days could increase awareness of the game. “The daytime window is not perfect from a television audience perspective, but the league had to make a very difficult decision considering many stakeholders,” a USA Network spokesperson said. “What was important to us was ultimately being a good partner and being part of the solution.”

Disclosure: CNBC, USA Network, E! and Syfy are divisions of Versant Media.