ATLANTA, Ga. — The Atlanta Dream now have an end date on their move downtown. The WNBA team will stay at State Farm Arena for its home schedule until 2031, co-owner and CEO Suzanne Abair said, filling in the length of a deal the club had first described only as multi-year.
Earlier this month the Dream said the downtown arena would become their home beginning in 2027, without saying how long they would stay. The new detail sets up a five-season run in the building, from 2027 through 2031.
It is a step up in size and location for the franchise. The Dream have been based at Gateway Center Arena, while State Farm Arena is home to the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and counts as one of the anchor tenants of downtown Atlanta.
The news comes in the middle of the best season the club has had in more than a decade. This fall the Dream made it back to the WNBA Finals, their first trip to the title series since 2013, and demand for tickets has been huge: more than 40,000 fans waited in the online queue for seats to game three of the series in Atlanta.
Abair, whose ownership group took over in 2021, said the plan from the start was to build a franchise worthy of the team and the city. She said she sees money spent on women’s sports as an investment that pays off rather than a gamble, and that the return on the Dream has been enormous.
She said the team is proud to have reached the Finals but wants to bring a championship to Atlanta. The Dream also expect to make an announcement about a practice facility and its possible location soon.
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