Sunday, after dinner, I called my mother in Indiana. I wanted to talk to her about the WNBA Finals. The Golden State Valkyries lead Atlanta Dream 3-2, and they are one win away from their first-ever title. Game 6 is in Atlanta, on a Thursday, at 12.30pm. Because the arena wasn’t free at any other time.
She said nothing. So I explained. The Dream usually play at the Gateway Center Arena, 3,500 seats. For the big games they move to the State Farm Arena, 17,000 seats, home of the NBA’s Hawks. They’ve played all their play-offs there. But during the Finals the NBA season has started, and there are concerts.
Let me tell you, I know about halls that aren’t yours. In 2000, my first practice in Charleroi stopped at nine o’clock sharp, because badminton was waiting at the edge of the lines with its shuttlecocks. Nobody had warned me. Nobody had warned the badminton either.
The club has written an open letter and puts the blame on the WNBA. I read my mother what it said, as reported by Sporza, the Flemish public broadcaster: “We repeated those concerns during the play-offs, but they fell on deaf ears.” According to the New York Times, quoted by Sporza, the dates were sent out in early December 2025, with until the end of December to flag a conflict. The WNBA hasn’t officially reacted yet. My mother asked who was right. I said that here, we check first.
Then I gave her the detail that bothered me: for Golden State fans in San Francisco, 12.30pm in Atlanta is 9.30am. A game for a title at half past nine in the morning. And if the Valkyries win, the arena has to be converted right afterwards, because the Hawks play a few hours later.
She thought about it. Then she said that half past nine was a time when people are awake, and that it was me, in Belgium, who watched the NBA at three in the morning. She said: see?
It’s true, we checked: Sporza.
