The Golden State Valkyries will play their WNBA Finals road games in front of a far bigger crowd than first expected, and the first of them will come a day sooner.
The league announced Tuesday that Games 3 and 4 against the Atlanta Dream will be held at State Farm Arena, home of the NBA's Hawks, instead of the Dream's usual College Park home, Gateway Center Arena. Gateway Center holds 3,500 and is the smallest building in the WNBA, CBS Sports reported, while State Farm Arena seats just under 18,000.
The new calendar
Game 3 moves from Thursday, Oct. 22, to Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 5 p.m. Pacific on USA Network and CNBC, with streaming on Peacock. Game 4 stays on Saturday, Oct. 24, but tips at 10 a.m.
Pacific instead of 12:30 p.m., on NBC and Peacock. To make room for that afternoon game, the Hawks pushed their regular-season home opener against Houston back to 5:30 p.m. Pacific.
CBS Sports reported that a concert already booked for Oct. 22 was the obstacle that forced Game 3 to move. The change shortens the gap between Games 2 and 3. Golden State hosts Game 2 at Chase Center on Monday, Oct. 19, at 5 p.m., then plays in Atlanta two nights later at the same hour.
"The change of venue dramatically expands the seating capacity and ensures that the Dream will be able to provide an extraordinary atmosphere for the first WNBA Finals game to be played in the Atlanta market since 2013," Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in the league's announcement.
One date is still open. A possible Game 6 on Thursday, Oct. 29, has no site yet because the Hawks host Cleveland that night. CBS noted that the joint Dream-Hawks statement did not address it and that Gas South Arena, with a capacity of about 13,000, is a possible fallback. Chase Center is set to host Games 5 and 7 if they are needed.
Arena conflicts are familiar to this franchise. Last season the Valkyries played the first playoff game in their history in San Jose's SAP Center instead of Chase Center, CBS recalled. Every Golden State home game in this series will be in San Francisco.
