WNBA Finals' afternoon tip-off time sparks uproar
The Atlanta Dream will face the Golden State Valkyries in Game 6 of the 2026 WNBA Finals on Thursday not in primetime, but in the middle of the afternoon.
The two teams are scheduled to tip-off in Atlanta at 12:30 p.m. EST, a time that has sparked backlash from fans and players alike.
"Game six for the WNBA Finals being at 12:30 EST is quite literally insane," one WNBA fan said in a now-viral TikTok post.
Chiney Ogwumike, a former WNBA player turned ESPN basketball analyst, also weighed in, saying on ESPN this week, "The players, the fans deserve this being in primetime. The fact that this was dealt with so last-minute is an epic fail."
The controversy started earlier this month, when it was determined that the Dream's regular season home arena, the 5,000-seat Gateway Center Arena, was not big enough to meet fan demand for the finals.
The WNBA announced on Oct. 13 that Games 3 and 4 of the finals in Atlanta would be played instead at State Farm Arena, which seats nearly 17,000 fans and is the home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.
When the best-of-seven series reached Game 6, scheduled for Thursday, the Dream ran into a conflict with the Hawks' regular schedule. The Hawks are scheduled to play the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday night at 8 p.m. EST.
Instead of adjusting the Hawks' schedule, the WNBA Finals game was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. EST.
Even with the midday start time, Thursday's WNBA Finals game is sold out. This year's finals have also made television history with fans, as Game 4 of the series was the most-watched WNBA Finals game of all time with nearly 2 million viewers.
The owners of the Dream have placed blame for the scheduling issue on the WNBA, saying in an open letter to Atlanta this week that the team raised the issue months ago, writing, "Our concerns did not receive the attention, the urgency that they deserved."
The WNBA has not responded publicly to the criticism.
The Valkyries are currently leading the series 3-2 and have the potential to win the two-year-old franchise's first-ever WNBA championship Thursday afternoon. The team's players have jokingly urged fans to call out sick from work in order to watch them play, considering the game will air at 9:30 a.m. PST.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News and ESPN.
