After playing three home playoff games at State Farm Arena during their run to the WNBA Finals, the Atlanta Dream will have to host league championship series games at the smaller Gateway Center Arena.
The Dream played six of their 22 home games during the regular season at the larger State Farm Arena, home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. With a capacity of 16,888 for basketball games, the larger facility could accommodate what would certainly be a larger audience for two WNBA Finals games.
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Additionally, State Farm Arena is located in downtown Atlanta, presumably offering easier access from hotels, highways and public transportation, in addition to more parking and the ability to walk to the stadium from downtown.
Instead, the Dream will have to play in the smaller Gateway Center Arena, which seats 3,500 people for basketball games and is located just outside Atlanta in College Park, Georgia.
The Dream have played 16 of their home games this season at Gateway Center Arena, which seats only 3,500 for basketball games. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Sportswire Icon via Getty Images)
For comparison, the Golden State Valkyries will host Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 at Chase Center in San Francisco, also the home of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, which seats 18,064 for basketball.
The Dream have attempted to move their WNBA Finals games to a larger area arena, but have so far been unsuccessful in those discussions, according to Meghan L. Hall of USA Today.
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Other possible venues in metro Atlanta include McCavish Pavilion on the Georgia Tech campus, which can accommodate 8,600 people for basketball games. The Convocation Center at Georgia State University also has a capacity of 7,500 for basketball. The Gas South Arena in Duluth, Ga., located nearly 30 miles from downtown Atlanta, seats 12,750 and was also considered.
State Farm Arena is not available for Games 3, 4 and 6 of the WNBA Finals — scheduled for Oct. 22, 24 and 29, respectively — with a Sombr concert and two Hawks regular-season games, including the team’s home opener, already booked at the venue.
“We didn’t have any playoff games (at State Farm Arena) last year … but we had a few games there, and they looked like playoff games,” Dream guard Rhyne Howard told USA Today. “So I think the fact that we had that during the season and we got the result that we got, I think it helps us prepare for that environment.”
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Last week, the Dream announced they would play all of their home games in 2027 at State Farm Arena. Each team will play 25 home games as part of an expanded 50-game WNBA regular season schedule. However, this obviously doesn’t solve the problem of what to do in the WNBA Finals.
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