After the Atlanta Dream made it to the WNBA Finals, you would expect the headlines to be talking about the upcoming matches against the Golden State Valkyries, but that hasn’t been the case at all. All the conversation has been surrounding where the Atlanta Dream will play in the first place. The Atlanta Dream resolved their WNBA Finals venue conflict by moving Games 3 and 4 to State Farm Arena, working out adjustments with the Atlanta Hawks and event organizers.
So to explain a bit further, the Dream have a stadium they normally play at, which is the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia. The issue is this is the WNBA Finals, the most important four to seven games of the season, and the Gateway Center Arena only holds 3,500. 3,500 is not a lot, so the Atlanta Dream opted to use the State Farm Arena for the 2026 WNBA Finals instead of their own.
The State Farm Arena holds 17,000 people way more than 3,500) and is a much better option for the WNBA Finals games 3 and 4 to be played at. But there was an overlap in events already happening at the State Farm Arena.
The State Farm Arena is already the home of the Atlanta Hawks already and the NBA season is right around the corner, with the opening game for the Hawks vs. the Houston Rockets taking place then. Although they are way different in importance and value, I can understand why there would be slight pushback from the arena owners and whatnot since it is the home of the NBA already.
What, in my opinion, is completely unacceptable is the Dream being held up from playing game 3 due to a SOMBR concert. This may be a strong opinion and very biased, but I don’t like SOMBR’s music in the slightest, so seeing the Dream get shafted for his concert left a poor taste in my mouth, especially considering again that the Finals of the WNBA are the most important games of the season by far.
This issue has now been resolved in a way that works for all 3 parties The Dream, SOMBR, and the Hawks) involved:
Game 3 has been moved from Thursday, Oct. 22 to Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 8:00 PM ET at State Farm Arena to avoid conflicting with the SOMBR concert which gives the players one less day of rest and travel in between games 2 and 3)
Game 4 on Saturday, Oct 24, has been turned into a Doubleheader: with the WNBA Finals game moved up to 1:00 PM ET, followed by the Hawks’ home opener pushed back to 8:30 PM ET.
