Tiffany Hayes of the Golden State Valkyries shoots the ball past Allisha Gray of the Atlanta Dream during the fourth quarter in Game 4 of the 2026 WNBA Finals at State Farm Arena on Oct. 24, 2026, in Atlanta.
Tiffany Hayes of the Golden State Valkyries shoots the ball past Allisha Gray of the Atlanta Dream during the fourth quarter in Game 4 of the 2026 WNBA Finals at State Farm Arena on Oct. 24, 2026, in Atlanta.
On the day of Game 5 of the tied WNBA Finals, the Golden State Valkyries finally found out when and where they’ll play Game 6: in the middle of a workday morning for San Francisco fans.
The WNBA brought an end to the chaotic few days of uncertainty by announcing Game 6 in Atlanta will be played at 12:30 p.m. Eastern/9:30 a.m. Pacific on Thursday, Oct. 29, in State Farm Arena. ESPN was first to report the time was moved up from the previously scheduled 5 p.m. Pacific time slot, with the WNBA making its official announcement a few minutes later.
The news comes two full days after the Valkyries won Game 4 over the Dream, tying the best-of-seven series at two games each and guaranteeing Game 6 would happen. The WNBA did not have an announcement set at the time and, according to multiple reports, had spent the better part of the past two days trying to find a workable solution.
In case you missed it, for the past six seasons the Dream have called home the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, which only has a capacity of around 3,500. But the Dream have moved every playoff game this year to the much larger State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta, an arena operated by the NBA’s Hawks that holds a little more than 17,000.
Ever since the Dream clinched a spot in the WNBA Finals on Oct. 9, it wasn’t clear where the league was going to hold the three games in Atlanta. The WNBA set the Finals schedule months in advance with national television partners, and State Farm Arena had conflicts for the dates of Games 3, 4 and 6. But on Oct. 13, the WNBA announced that Games 3 and 4 would be moved in order to get them played in State Farm Arena.
That announcement, though, didn’t touch on Game 6, and the league did not answer an SFGATE inquiry at the time about what would happen for it. As of Friday — as in one day before Game 4 — Hawks chief operating officer Steve Koonin was telling Atlanta sports radio station 92.9 The Game that people should “write your local congressman” if they were trying to help get the game into State Farm Arena and that playing in Gateway Center Arena “might be unavoidable.”
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All of the negotiations sure give the impression that the WNBA avoided coming to a solution because the series might have ended prior to Game 6. According to an ESPN story on Sunday, several sources around the situation “expressed frustration that these issues hadn’t been resolved before Saturday.”
According to ESPN, the other options considered included moving Game 6 back a day to Friday, and moving Game 7 back three days to Tuesday, Nov. 3 in order to avoid conflicts with the Warriors, moving the Cavaliers-Hawks game back a day to Friday or moving the NBA game to Cleveland, turning a matchup later in the season into an Atlanta home game in its place. In the end, the solution chosen was a epreat of the WNBA-NBA doubleheader that occurred for Game 4 of the series on Saturday, only this time on a workday.
But even with this feasible solution finalized, there’s no underscoring just how embarrassing it is for the WNBA to have the arena issues in the middle of the Finals. And there are considerable costs for Valkyries fans, as the new game time will occur early on in the workday, with the game likely concluding around noon Pacific time in San Francisco. The earlier start time will surely have an impact on television ratings, how many local bars and other businesses can host watch parties and more.
Game 5 of the WNBA Finals is set to take place in San Francisco at 5 p.m. on Monday, with the game televised on USA Network.
This breaking news story has been updated.
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