Atlanta — If you believe the polls, there is talk of a blue wave in the midterm elections next month. There was certainly a sky-blue wave in Atlanta on Wednesday night.
More than 17,000 Atlanta fans roared the Dream to a thumping 26-point victory and a 2-1 lead in the WNBA Finals series against the Golden State Valkyries. There was barely any other color visible in a sold-out crowd at the State Farm Arena, and the noise was deafening from start to finish.
Having watched their team level the series with a dominant performance on the road, the Atlanta crowd was fired up to welcome the Dream back to an arena that has quickly become their home, and it is now the only place in town that can accommodate such a rapidly expanding franchise.
For a moment, it seemed as though this might instead have all played out 10 miles to the south of the city, in a claustrophobic arena outside Atlanta that the Dream have rapidly outgrown. Given what the scene at State Farm Arena on Wednesday was like, that would have been a travesty.
They’re only halfway to the title, but this performance felt like a celebration befitting the size of the venue.
Since 2021, Atlanta’s women have been playing out of a venue that can hold just 3,500 fans. Once they made the playoffs this season, they switched to State Farm, where much bigger crowds have cheered them to two straight sweeps on their way to the Finals. By the time they reached their first Finals since 2013, they’d won 10 straight games.
DeWanna Bonner of the Atlanta Dream shoots the ball as the Dream pull away in the third quarter of Game 3.
DeWanna Bonner of the Atlanta Dream shoots the ball as the Dream pull away in the third quarter of Game 3. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
During that run, the team announced that State Farm would become their permanent residency from 2027, but in the meantime, nobody knew where they would play the Finals. A concert was booked for the night of Game 3 and the city’s NBA team, the Hawks, were scheduled to play their home season opener on the night of Game 4.
Atlanta’s fans were incensed, with many unfairly criticizing the Hawks – a franchise which hasn’t won the NBA Finals since 1961 and never since moving to Atlanta, it was noted with some derision. But thankfully a solution was found; Game 3 was brought forward by 24 hours and Game 4 will tip off at State Farm as a Saturday afternoon game, and Game 6, if it’s required … well, they’ll cross that bridge if they come to it.
On Thursday, the musician Sombr will take the stage at State Farm Arena. On Wednesday, the mood was gleefully electric as Atlanta comprehensively dismantled their opponents to take control of the series.
The whole scene was yet more evidence of a league that is absolutely booming. Prior to tipoff, NBC reported an average audience for 2.1 million viewers for Game 1, a new broadcast record, and the secondary ticket marketplace TickPick said that it was selling tickets for over $200 was also a Finals record.
That’s despite the series missing arguably the game’s biggest stars. Caitlin Clark, the generational talent who propelled professional women’s basketball into the national consciousness in 2024, is nowhere near it. Neither is the league’s hottest player, the record five-time MVP A’Ja Wilson, whose defending champion Las Vegas were swept in the semifinals by Golden State.
Those Aces were trumped in the semifinals by the dominant Valkyries, who’ve had the audacity to reach the Finals in only their second season. The Dream, meanwhile, are trying to bring some sporting pride to a city that so often has been also-rans or nowhere-nears. The league will crown a new champion at the end of the series.
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