How the Hell Are We Going to Watch Game 6 of the WNBA Finals?

This piece is a joint publication between COYOTE and Valkyries Beat, a newsletter covering the Golden State Valkyries from the perspective of a women's sports journalist.

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This week, Game 6 of the most-attended and watched WNBA Finals ever is on Thursday, Oct. 29 — and it’s happening at the most inconvenient time possible: 12:30pm ET. Do the math, and that’s a morning game out here in the Bay. Doesn't the WNBA know that people have jobs?

Why is this happening? Because as history has shown us, literally anything else takes precedence over women’s sports. In the past, it’s been a Jonas Brothers concert or Disney on Ice show or arena renovations. This year, it’s so that men aren’t inconvenienced. 

The Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries will play Game 6 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on the same day that has always been scheduled, but won’t start at the usual time of 8pm ET. Notably, this will be the first Game 6 in the history of the WNBA: Last season, the league switched to a best-of-7 Finals format, but the Las Vegas Aces won in five games.

So what’s with the breakfast start time? Because the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers are playing at 8pm that night in the same arena. And just to be clear, it’s not an NBA playoff game: it's the fourth game of the regular season and, apparently, unmovable.

Before Monday morning, nobody even knew when or where Game 6 would be. There was speculation they might push the series out to a Game 7 in San Francisco on Nov. 3 instead of Oct. 31, but the Valkyries didn’t want to play on Election Day.

And they shouldn’t have to play a worse schedule with the proper coordination. Team management was prepared for every possibility in the postseason: When a Doja Cat concert was scheduled the same day as Game 2, Chase Center swiftly rescheduled it, no problem.

Not so in Atlanta, where planning didn’t exist and the glorious 2-1 Atlanta Hawks take center stage.

The WNBA announced its Finals schedule on Sept. 9, after the NBA dropped its regular season schedule on Aug. 13. Even if the Dream didn’t think they’d be in the Finals, once they were up in the series against the New York Liberty in the semi-finals on October 4, they could have tried negotiating something. Before the start of the Finals, they announced Games 3 and 4 would be moved to State Farm Arena, postponing a concert and then scheduling a Hawks game for later, so there was a window at some point where things could've been resolved.

According to The Athletic, the WNBA teams were sent playoff dates in December 2025, and it was on them to figure out any scheduling issues.

This is a little different than if the Warriors had a game that had to be moved, since the Bay Area men’s team is owned by Joe Lacob, who also owns the Valkyries. Despite the fact that the Hawks put a couple of their own players on an image congratulating the Dream on making the Finals, the two teams are unaffiliated; and technically, the Dream are not yet tenants of State Farm Arena. They have, though, played all of their postseason games at the big arena, so having all games except the Finals clincher there would be its own version of wild.

“Ballhalla, they’ll sacrifice,” said Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase on Monday, trying to make the most of the situation. “They’re gonna sacrifice. They’re gonna open that app, they’re gonna open their phone. I have no doubt that everyone who has been supporting us through this whole way [will watch].” But why should the women’s sports fans have to be the ones to sacrifice at all?

According to the NBA, the game couldn’t be moved because both the Hawks and Cavaliers play a game the night before, and switching their game time to 12:30pm on Thursday would cause them to play fewer than 24 hours later. The league couldn’t move the game to Friday either because both the Hawks and Cavaliers have games on Saturday: another back-to-back situation.

As to why they can’t just delay the game until later in the season, when there are plenty of open dates? Beats me, but it seems like the NBA just doesn’t want to.

Was the WNBA really hoping the series would end in 5? Because that’s kind of absurd when this has been one of the most evenly matched series in recent memory, and both Atlanta and Golden State have pulled off crazy wins this postseason. 

In addition to the early start time on a weekday where most people will be working, they gave just three days' notice of this change. That surely affects people who bought tickets to the game and Valkyries fans who bought flights and hotels and planned trips around the Finals.

“The sellout crowds and extraordinary atmosphere at State Farm Arena for Games 3 and 4 were a tremendous success, and we’re excited to give thousands more fans the opportunity to experience Game 6 with a championship on the line,” said outgoing WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “We thank the NBA, Dream, Valkyries, Hawks, State Farm Arena and USA Network for the collaboration and flexibility that made this move possible. We look forward to delivering another unforgettable Finals experience in Atlanta.”

But don’t worry, the fourth game of the regular season between the Hawks and Cavaliers will go on as scheduled, and that’s what really matters.

Surely there’s no way this could have been resolved a couple of weeks ago. Wait, what? I’m hearing it absolutely could have been.

Normally, the Dream play at Gateway Center in College Park, a 3,500-seat arena about 10 miles from downtown Atlanta. It is the smallest arena in the WNBA. The league had looked at Gas South Arena (up to 13,000 seats) and Georgia Tech's McCamish Pavilion (8,600 seats) in Atlanta but neither were a viable option for those dates.

Playing a Finals game in 2026 with just 3,500 seats is untenable, especially in comparison to the wildness of Ballhalla. Even without that juxtaposition, though, the concept of a clinching game in that space is just not possible. There isn’t even enough room for broadcast to set up. 

So now, because the WNBA neglected to negotiate a few weeks prior, the Atlanta Dream didn’t plan ahead, and the MNBA can’t or won’t compromise, the WNBA Finals champion could be crowned before lunchtime on the West Coast.

The players and teams, of course, are taking the high road. 

“I mean, it’s the Finals. You just gotta do what you gotta do. We’re locked in on winning Game 6; I don’t care if we’re playing at 8am, 10pm, midnight, we got a championship to win,” Dream guard Allisha Gray said on Monday.

The WNBA’s press release announcing the start time change also graciously noted that the Hawks “accommodated” the WNBA by moving the start time of their game by one hour.

That said, the NBA is still “committed to growing women’s sports.” Thanks guys! 

And I bet the “save women’s sports” people are gonna be so mad about this actual thing that sucks, right?