The Atlanta Dream swept the New York Liberty on Friday to reach the WNBA Finals against the Golden State Valkyries. Game 1 is Saturday in San Francisco. The Dream played their playoff home games at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. That arena has a Sombr concert on October 22 and Atlanta Hawks games on October 24 and 29. Those are the dates for Games 3, 4 and a possible Game 6. The Dream averaged about 9,700 fans at State Farm this postseason. Their regular home, Gateway Center Arena in College Park, seats about 3,500, the fewest in the league. USA Today reported that efforts to book Georgia Tech's arena or Gas South Arena in Duluth ran into problems. Yahoo Sports reported Sunday night that the Dream are set to play at Gateway, but the team hadn't announced a venue as of Monday evening.

The Dream Should Have Seen This Coming (Cassandra Negley)

A Yahoo Sports reporter says the Dream had since December to lock in a bigger arena.

This was avoidable. Cassandra Negley covers women's basketball for Yahoo Sports. She wrote that holding games at Gateway is "a disgrace, for both the Dream and the league, and overall a bad idea." She pointed out that "the WNBA Finals schedule went out to teams in December." In her view, the Dream should have held State Farm dates long before now.

Nobody else had to give up their dates. The Dream are one of the few WNBA teams with no ownership tie to an NBA team or arena. Negley wrote that the Hawks and the concert have no reason to "upend their own highly intricate logistics to bend around the Dream when they aren't partners in either ownership or arena tenants." "This isn't a charity," she added.

But the Finals Deserve the Big Arena (Fans, Craig Carton)

Angry fans say regular-season Hawks games shouldn't beat out a championship series.

Moving two regular-season games would fix it. Fans on social media aimed their anger at the NBA team. "Move the HAWKS games," one wrote. "Even if you couldn't move the concert, moving the two Hawks games does more than enough." Another wrote, "No way Hawks regular games are being prioritised over the WNBA Finals."

The other Finals team is making room for its game. The Valkyries had a Doja Cat concert booked at Chase Center on October 19, the night of Game 2. The team said the concert would move to a backup date, calling that "standard practice."

A radio host says the tiny gym makes the league look bad. Craig Carton, a sports radio host, called Gateway "a glorified high school gymnasium." He blamed the league's priorities. "They want someone other than Caitlin [Clark] or Sophie [Cunningham] to be the face of the league," he said.

Still, the Home Gym Could Help the Dream (Grant Young, Morgan Shaw Parker)

Some say a small, familiar gym could help Atlanta more than an unfamiliar big one.

Playing at home could help the Dream. Grant Young writes for Sports Illustrated's Women's Fastbreak. He called the setup "obviously not ideal" but "not the worse-case scenario." The Dream have played at Gateway for six years. He'd rather see them there than in an arena they've never played in. "That certainty breeds routine, and routine breeds comfort," he wrote.

The team has sold Gateway as a close-up experience. Morgan Shaw Parker is the Dream's president and COO. She has described a Gateway game as "like passing a plate of food with your family." The Dream are moving all their home games to State Farm Arena next season.

Where This Lands

Negley says the Dream had months to plan and the Hawks owe them nothing. Fans say the Hawks should move two regular-season games. Golden State is already moving a Doja Cat concert for its own Finals game. Carton says the small gym shows a league with the wrong priorities. Young says a familiar home gym beats an arena the Dream have never played in. Game 3 tips off October 22.

Sources