The Dream said that they “raised concerns about scheduling conflicts between the WNBA Finals and other events at the city’s State Farm Arena months ago.” The team’s owners Larry and Robyn Gottesdiener, Suzanne Abair and Renee Montgomery, in a letter to the city of Atlanta, said that the issues were “known to the Dream and brought to the league’s attention,” but their concerns were “largely ignored.” The letter read, “Our concerns did not receive the attention, nor the urgency that they deserved.” The letter also said the 12:30pm ET tip-off on Thursday is “not what we would have chosen and not what we fought for” (CNN.com, 10/27). The potential scheduling issues for the Dream’s Finals games were “raised ‘weeks ago’ when it became apparent Atlanta would likely make the playoffs,” according to sources cited by USA TODAY. Concerns with the Dream’s arena size were “then brought up again after the team secured its postseason spot,” then came to the “forefront ahead of the start to the WNBA Finals” (USA TODAY, 10/27).

The Dream were the only playoff team “scheduled opposite the NBA team in the same city,” according to a source cited by USA TODAY. No other playoff team “had a potential conflict with their ‘brother’ team” (USA TODAY, 10/27). A source, cited by THE ATHLETIC, said that the Hawks-Cavs game, which will be played Thursday night, “was indeed moveable.” A memo noted that the WNBA “sent out the ‘playoff hold dates’ to team presidents, general managers and scheduling contacts on Dec. 4, 2025.” All WNBA teams had until Dec. 31 to “respond to the league, detailing the status of every playoff date, confirming their arena’s availability or any conflict.” If there was any conflict, teams were “asked to outline the ‘nature of the conflict’ as well as whether there was a buy-out option” (THE ATHLETIC, 10/27).

The Atlanta Dream ownership group has released a statement regarding the matinee time change for Game 6, in part saying “playing a midday game on a Thursday is not what we would have chosen and not what we fought for.”

The letter says they raised scheduling concerns to the… pic.twitter.com/2vuXIkkKbh

— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) October 28, 2026