{"id":892268,"date":"2026-10-23T20:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T20:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/892268\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T20:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T20:18:09","slug":"state-farm-arena-preparing-for-highly-anticipated-dream-and-hawks-doubleheader-what-fans-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/892268\/","title":{"rendered":"State Farm Arena preparing for highly-anticipated Dream and Hawks doubleheader: What fans need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of workers will race against the clock Saturday as State Farm Arena hosts the WNBA Finals and the Atlanta Hawks’ home opener on the same day.<\/p>\n

The Atlanta Dream face the Golden State Valkyries in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals at 1 p.m. The Hawks host the Houston Rockets at 8:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Between games, crews must clear the arena and replace the entire basketball floor before Hawks fans enter at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

“It’s gonna take hundreds of staff who are very excited for this challenge,” said Amanda Mann, executive vice president and chief facilities officer for the Hawks and State Farm Arena.<\/p>\n

The Dream’s game was moved from Gateway Center Arena in College Park, which seats about 3,500, to State Farm Arena<\/a>, which holds nearly 17,000 for basketball.<\/p>\n

The Dream sold out Wednesday’s Game 3 at State Farm Arena and expects another full house Saturday. Atlanta leads the best-of-seven series 2-1 after Wednesday’s 97-71 victory over Golden State.<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

Angel Reese #5 of the Atlanta Dream reacts after a made 3-pointer against the Golden State Valkyries during the first quarter in game three of the WNBA Finals at State Farm Arena on Oct.\u00a021, 2026 in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Colin Hubbard \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Atlanta United also hosts Chicago Fire FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, adding to expected downtown congestion.<\/p>\n

Arena officials recommend reserving parking in advance or taking MARTA to the Sports, Entertainment and Convention District Station, formerly known as GWCC\/CNN Center.<\/p>\n

“We really would love to see people use public transportation, but make sure you have a plan in advance,” Mann said.<\/p>\n

What fans need to knowDream: Doors open at 11:30 a.m.; tipoff at 1 p.m.Hawks: Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; tipoff at 8:30 p.m.Atlanta United: Kickoff at 7:30 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.Parking: Reserve in advance or consider MARTA.Tickets: Separate tickets are required for both basketball games. Fans must exit the arena between events.<\/p>\n

Mann said the arena will follow its usual security procedures as crews work to complete the court conversion before the Hawks’ home opener.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of workers will race against the clock Saturday as State Farm Arena hosts the WNBA Finals and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[81130,5786,6417,402,355,99,434],"class_list":["post-892268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-american-dream","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}