Sources with knowledge of the matter told a prominent broadcast outlet that the Atlanta Dream have been working to shift WNBA Finals home games to a bigger arena in Atlanta, though those efforts have yet to produce results. Those individuals sought confidentiality on the grounds that sharing details of the decision fell outside the scope of what they had been cleared to do.
Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia — the Dream's home court — is scheduled to host three of the series' contests: the third on Oct. 22, the fourth two days later on Oct. 24, and the sixth on Oct. 29, unless adjustments are made beforehand. Seating for basketball draws on a total of 3,500 places within the venue.
Sources familiar with the matter indicated that a berth in the WNBA Finals had prompted the Dream to pursue State Farm Arena in Atlanta — a venue capable of holding more than 17,000 spectators — as their preferred home for those games. At State Farm, nine contests fell on the team's home schedule across the calendar — six belonging to the regular season, with three more arriving once postseason play got underway. Negotiations aimed at relocating Finals fixtures to that venue have yet to produce an agreement.
Three of the playoff schedule's six games — the third, fourth, and sixth — fall on dates when State Farm Arena is committed to a concert and a pair of Atlanta Hawks regular-season matchups, the first of which serves as the team's home opener. People with knowledge of the matter told reporters that the Dream looked into alternative venue locations across the Atlanta area, only to find those avenues similarly blocked.
State Farm Arena is set to serve as the Dream's home venue beginning next season, the team confirmed on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Structured under a deal spanning multiple years, the arrangement arrives at a point when the league's own numbers have been climbing to their highest levels on record. Beginning two seasons from now, the WNBA will stretch its per-team schedule to 50 games, with State Farm Arena pencilled in for all 25 of the Dream's home dates — a building that, by at least one telling, generated playoff-like energy even during a handful of ordinary-season contests the previous year.
Dream guard Rhyne Howard noted that navigating those experiences during the regular season, and seeing how the team responded, had positioned the group well for the demands of the current environment.
Chase Center in San Francisco will serve as the home venue for the Golden State Valkyries across four of the Finals matchups — Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 falling under their hosting duties. Chase Center serves as the Valkyries' home venue for WNBA regular-season play and has also hosted postseason contests, with team president Jess Smith indicating that the ownership group has committed to keeping all playoff games at that arena rather than relocating any of them. Arena bookings typically include contingency dates to accommodate scheduling uncertainties.
Atlanta reached the 2026 WNBA Finals by entering the playoffs as the fourth seed, dispatching the Washington Mystics without dropping a game in the opening round, then sweeping the New York Liberty across the semifinal series. For the first occasion since the 2013 campaign, the Dream have earned a place on the Finals stage. Nine Finals appearances have yielded nine defeats for Atlanta across the full span of franchise history.
