There’s a real chance a WNBA victor could be crowned for the season on Thursday before some fans even sit down for their in-office desk lunch.
The league moved Game 6 of the championship series from its primetime slot of 8 p.m. ET to 12:30 p.m. ET slot as a result of a scheduling conflict. The game was moved from the 3,500-seat Gateway Center in College Park, Georgia, to the 17,000-seat State Farm Arena, which is home to the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, to accommodate larger crowds, but an already scheduled regular season NBA match at the arena forced the league to move up the start time.
Championship contender the Atlanta Dream said it warned the WNBA about potential scheduling issues months ago, but that its warning went unheeded.
“Two months ago, when the WNBA finalized playoff dates and times, we raised concerns that the W Finals schedule conflicted with NBA games at State Farm Arena,” the Dream ownership group wrote in an open letter published on Tuesday. “As we moved through the playoffs, we reiterated those concerns. Our concerns did not receive the attention, nor the urgency that they deserved.
“Perhaps it was assumed that the Dream would not make it this far. Perhaps, our place in the Finals was not accounted for. Whatever the reason, the reality is that we are here,” the letter continued. “Playing a midday game on a Thursday is not what we would have chosen and not what we fought for.”
The league did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
The 30-year-old WNBA has seen an explosion in growth following the introduction of a cohort of star-studded young players, swell of investments, and media-rights package worth about $3.1 billion over 11 years that catapulted it from a beloved league among a cadre of fans to a pillar of American mainstream sports. The league made an estimated $200 million to $300 million in revenue last season, and the Golden State Valkyries, the other championship contender, became the first team to reach a $1 billion valuation earlier this year, the only team in women’s sports to cross that threshold.
What are the consequences of the scheduling change for the WNBA?
While sports fans and beat writers alike have expressed their ire toward the league over the scheduling change, arguing many will have trouble viewing the game while at work and lamenting that other leagues would never schedule a potential title-deciding game during a midday time slot, it remains to be seen if there will be negative financial consequences from the move. The game at the larger-capacity State Farm Arena is sold out, though prices for Game 6 tickets plummeted to as low as $32, according to TicketData, a fraction of what they sold for two days earlier.
Ratings for the game could also be meaningfully lower than for a primetime slot. The first three Finals games, held both at 3:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET, averaged about 1.7 million viewers, on track to exceed the 2024 Finals as the league’s most watched championship-deciding series. However, according to Nielsen Big Data, the total TV audience at 12 p.m. this month is 44.3 million, about 60% smaller than the 106.2 million viewers at 8 p.m. The game will still air on USA Network and stream on Peacock, but Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin reported that the game will simulcast on E! and Syfy rather than the typical CNBC.
The WNBA has experienced numerous instances of moving game venues to accommodate event scheduling conflicts. In 2018, the Washington Mystics were forced from their home court for the playoffs, playing instead at George Washington University’s Charles E. Smith Center, and later playing Finals games at George Mason University’s EagleBank Arena, about 20 miles west of their home stadium in downtown DC.
Last year, the Valkyries made a surprise playoff appearance. Because its home Chase Center was booked for the Laver Cup tennis tournament, its home playoff games were held at the SAP Center in San Jose more than 40 miles away from its usual venue.