Game 6 of the WNBA Finals will be played at a rather inopportune time, but apparently, that won’t stop fans from filling the building.
The Golden State Valkyries have a chance to win their first title on Thursday against the Atlanta Dream, but scheduling conflicts have caused the game to be played at 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.
The game will be played at 17,000-seat State Farm Arena, hours before the Atlanta Hawks are set to tip off against the Cleveland Cavaliers at 8 p.m.
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Despite the unorthodox start time, though, StubHub says ticket sales since the time change was announced have actually increased by more than 13,000%. As of this writing, the lowest ticket price on the marketplace was listed for $66.
Ninety-six percent of all Game 6 tickets sold to date were purchased in the three days following the announcement, the ticket marketplace said, and daily searches for Game 6 have increased 27 times (+2,600%) compared with the Oct. 9-25 average since the announcement.
By comparison, overall WNBA searches increased just 15%, showing that the surge in interest was specific to Game 6.
This is not the first scheduling conflict with the Dream this series — Game 3 was moved from Oct. 22 to Oct. 21 to avoid a concert conflict. Meanwhile, Game 4 was pushed to an afternoon tip-off, though it was this past Saturday to accommodate the Hawks’ home opener against the Houston Rockets that night.
The Dream have been drawing sold-out crowds through these Finals, and as a result, the league has had to maneuver to ensure the most seats are filled in larger arenas.
The Athletic reported the Hawks could’ve moved their Thursday night game to Friday. However, that would have created a Friday-Saturday back-to-back for both NBA teams. And the rescheduled matchup would’ve been on opening night of NBA Cup group play.
Then, there was the option of the Dream playing at their normal home in College Park, though thousands of fans wouldn’t be able to enter the arena due to the lack of seats.
There were other Georgia-area arenas to think about, though, including Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion and the Georgia State Convention Center, per CBS Sports.
Angel Reese, who’s enjoyed a strong Finals performance thus far, did state her wish to stay at State Farm Arena if it could work.
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