The WNBA has rescheduled a potential championship-clinching game between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries from its original prime-time slot to Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET, and the league has not said why it chose a weekday afternoon over other available options.
Game 6 will still be played at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, but instead of the originally planned 8 p.m. start, fans will need to tune in at midday on the East Coast — or 9:30 a.m. for Valkyries fans watching from the Bay Area. The game remains on USA Network and will stream on Peacock.
Golden State leads the best-of-seven series 3-2 and can clinch its first championship with a win Thursday. Atlanta needs a victory to force a Game 7, which would be played Saturday at 8 p.m. ET at Chase Center in San Francisco — assuming no further scheduling changes.
Outkick asked Versant, the parent company of USA Network, about its role in approving the new time. A source there said the change was the WNBA’s decision but did not say whether the network supported or approved the new start time. The WNBA itself has not responded to questions about why it settled on a weekday afternoon, what alternatives were considered, or whether it weighed the potential impact on viewership.
An Arena Conflict in Atlanta
The scheduling crunch stems from another game at State Farm Arena: the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks are hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers that same night. The Hawks agreed to push their tipoff to 8 p.m. to allow time for the arena to be reset after the WNBA game. The two teams used a similar arrangement for Game 4 on Saturday, when the WNBA game tipped off at 1 p.m. and the Hawks followed at 8:30 p.m.
Playing at State Farm Arena rather than the Dream’s regular home, the roughly 3,500-seat Gateway Center Arena, lets far more fans attend. Atlanta sold out the larger arena for Games 3 and 4, drawing loud, enthusiastic crowds. But those games were played on a Wednesday night and a Saturday afternoon — times that don’t conflict with work and school schedules the way a Thursday midday tipoff does.
An Alternative That Wasn’t Chosen
According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, the league also seriously considered playing Game 6 on Friday at State Farm Arena and pushing a possible Game 7 to Tuesday, Nov. 3, at Chase Center in San Francisco. That option would have pushed the series, which began Oct. 17, into November if a seventh game were necessary. Instead, the league kept Game 6 on Thursday and left open the possibility of a Game 7 on Halloween.
Shelburne also reported on ESPN’s
