Gateway Center Arena, the home arena of the Atlanta Dream, seats 3,800 people. And if you think that’s enough capacity for the 2026 Atlanta Dream, the team that won its way to the WNBA Finals against the Valkyries, you haven’t been paying attention.
The Dream played nine games total in State Farm Arena this year — six in the regular season, and three so far in the postseason, with Games 3 and 4 of the Finals scheduled to tip off there as well. Because we’re talking about women’s sports, people feel the need to get their jokes and hot takes off, and I’m here to separate the fact from fiction and explain why it makes sense for the Dream to be playing their home games in an NBA arena for this Finals series.
Why the Dream’s Finals games were initially scheduled at Gateway Center
When Atlanta won Games 1 and 2 of the Semifinals against the Liberty, they did so in State Farm Arena in front of a lively home crowd. Since then, the NBA season has kicked off, and obviously the Atlanta Hawks have games scheduled at their home arena, and the band Sombr was scheduled to play a show there on Oct. 22.
So the Dream’s home venue, Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Ga., was the available option.
State Farm Arena, though, seats about 17,000 people, and thankfully, the Hawks were willing and able to reschedule their home opener — no small concession! — and the Finals schedule got shifted a bit to accommodate the Sombr show. So Games 3 and 4 of the Finals are scheduled to take place in State Farm Arena.
Of course the “nobody cares about women’s sports” crowd had a lot to say about whether or not a WNBA team could sell out an NBA stadium. So let’s get into that.
Can the Dream sell out State Farm Arena in the WNBA Finals?
They can, and it seems they did.
When the Dream were initially scheduled to play these games at the much smaller Gateway Center Arena, there was an uproar amongst fans, who were livid at the idea of being shut out of this historic run due to venue size.
So when the venue was moved to State Farm, and tickets for Games 3 and 4 went on sale this week, Hawks and State Farm Arena CEO Steve Koonin told Front Office Sports they were “close to” being sold out on Thursday. The Dream haven’t confirmed a full sellout yet, but anecdotally, hundreds of fans are posting online about not being able to buy tickets because there aren’t any available. According to journalist Meghan Hall, there were approximately 42,000 in queue when the Atlanta Dream’s home Finals game tickets opened up for presale. Again, State Farm seats about 17,000.
And selling out State Farm Arena isn’t new for the Dream. In fact, they sold out the full arena for five of the six games they played there during the regular season.
The Dream did only offer limited-capacity seating in State Farm Arena for previous playoff games, but that was because of the tight timetable to host those games, the team shared with Front Office Sports. They will be operating State Farm Arena at full capacity for the Finals, and that arena will be rocking.
How did the Dream manage to move home Finals games to State Farm Arena?
It was a “group project”, former WNBA All-Star and current part-owner of the Dream Renee Montgomery told Front Office Sports.
Not only did the Dream need to coordinate with the Hawks and State Farm Arena, but the Valkyries, the WNBA, and the NBA were all in on the action.
“To come and make this happen in such short notice, like people have to understand this was unreal,” Montgomery said.
If this best-of-seven series goes past five games, Game 6 will be back in Atlanta, and it’s tentatively scheduled for Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. ET. The Hawks are scheduled to host the Cavaliers at State Farm Arena at 7 p.m. ET, so for now, the Dream will either be back in Gateway Center Arena for Game 6 if that comes to pass, or we’ll see another “group project” to get the Dream another sold-out State Farm crowd for Game 6.
Thankfully, this scheduling situation shouldn’t be an issue for the Dream after the Finals. On Oct. 6, the Dream announced a multi-year agreement to make State Farm Arena the team’s home venue starting with the 2027 season.