Atlanta Dream fans packed State Farm Arena for Thursday's early 12:30 PM WNBA Finals Game 6 start time amid a scheduling nightmare and historically cheap ticket prices

Game 6 of the WNBA Finals between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream will tip off at the unique 12:30 pm timeslot at State Farm Arena.

The Dream announced that tickets for Game 6 sold out at the 17,000+-seat NBA venue, but many still made their way to reseller sites. Prices dropped as low as $38 on Wednesday night after rising as high as $200 for WNBA Finals Game 4 on Saturday afternoon.

Either way, fans showed out in full force for Thursday's awkward tip-off time. State Farm Arena was almost completely full by tip-off, and Atlanta rewarded them by racing to a 32-15 start thanks to some hot shooting (the Dream shot 6-9 from three-point range).

Atlanta split the 2026 WNBA regular season between the team's 3,500-seat Gateway Center and State Farm Arena, owned and primarily operated by the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.

“For the fans who can make a noon tipoff work, though, this has turned into a pretty remarkable opportunity to attend a WNBA Finals game at a fraction of what tickets were selling for just two days ago,” TicketData founder Kevin Pagello told Front Office Sports.

“It’s also a bit ironic that the Dream’s final home game of the postseason will also end up being their cheapest tickets of the entire season.”

There was a slight market correction for ticket prices on Thursday morning, however. 90 minutes before tip-off, tickets climbed to over $85 on StubHub, over $70 on SeatGeek, and over $75 on Vivid Seats.

The Dream played Games 3 and 4 of the 2026 WNBA finals at the State Farm Arena — the team split the two games — and welcomed a slew of local celebrity guests, including Ludacris, 21 Savage, Kerry Washington, Andre Dickens, Quavo, Chris Tucker, Andre 3000, and others.

The WNBA franchise did not make arrangements for Game 6 far enough in advance to secure access to State Farm Arena at night for their game

The Hawks, who already made amendments to their season-opener to accommodate the Dream, play the Cleveland Cavaliers at home on Thursday night.

The Dream did not want to play Game 6 at the Gateway Center, forfeiting the larger atmosphere and extra ticket-sale opportunities. "I think it's good," Atlanta coach Karl Smesko said on Wednesday about the venue choice

"I'm glad we're at State Farm, and they got everything worked out. Everybody understands it's going to be an early start time. Hopefully the crowd gets there early and is ready to support us to a win."

Atlanta won the series' first game on the road at Golden State but lost Game 5 on Monday night and entered Game 6 facing a 3-2 series deficit.