The Atlanta Dream had not settled on a home venue for the WNBA Finals as of Sunday night, leaving Games 3, 4 and 6 without a confirmed site just days before the team is scheduled to host them on Oct. 22, Oct. 24 and Oct. 29.
Morgan Shaw Parker said the team was still “finalizing details on their home venue and where we will be playing” for the Finals, a choice that matters because the Dream’s current home, Gateway Center Arena at College Park, seats 3,500 while State Farm Arena can hold 17,044. The larger building is the obvious fit for a Finals crowd, and the team has already used it this year for six regular-season home games and all three of its previous home playoff games.
That larger stage, however, is not sitting open. State Farm Arena is booked for a Sombr concert on Oct. 22 and Atlanta Hawks regular-season games on Oct. 24 and Oct. 29, which leaves the Dream needing a plan that fits around a packed calendar. The simplest answer would be a move into the downtown arena for at least part of the series, but the dates themselves make that difficult unless another arrangement is found.
The venue question also fits into a longer history with the building. The Dream were based at State Farm Arena, then known as Philips Arena, from 2008 to 2016, played at Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion in 2017 and 2018 during refurbishments, returned in 2019 after the arena was renamed State Farm, and then moved to Gateway Center Arena in 2021. The team is also scheduled to make State Farm Arena its full-time home next season, which adds another layer to the decision now hanging over this Finals run.
The tension is not just about comfort or familiarity. The Finals have rarely been played in such a small building, and the last series to do so before 2020 came at the Washington Mystics’ 4,200-seat home. Even the Dream once hosted a Finals game at the Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, now known as Gas South Arena and seating around 13,000. For now, though, the practical question is still the one Parker left open last week: where, exactly, the Dream will play when the Finals come home.
