Tears and joy for a monumental tipping point for the Dream

What happened at State Farm Arena on Wednesday wasn’t merely a thrilling moment for Dream fans.

It was monumental.

Not merely the Dream running the Golden State Valkyries out of the gym to take a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-seven WNBA Finals. But a tipping point in the Dream’s 18-year odyssey to establish their place in the Atlanta sports ecosystem.

A raucous, sold-out arena, some paying as much as $6,000 (according to SeatGeek) to get in. Atlanta’s glitterati in attendance, their presence an endorsement of the product. A team with talent, personality and a high-wattage star playing with the cohesion of a symphony.

This for a team whose most recent WNBA Finals home game (in 2013) was played under quite different circumstances: A series-ending loss to the Minnesota Lynx before a crowd of 5,040 that partially filled Duluth’s Gas South Arena (then Gwinnett Arena), much of it there to cheer for Lynx star (and Collins Hill High graduate) Maya Moore.

“I was brought to tears and very emotional watching Game 3,” LaChina Robinson, NBC’s WNBA host, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday.

Robinson, also an analyst for Amazon Prime Video’s WNBA coverage, has experienced this franchise’s struggle for this moment more than just about anyone. She was a longtime analyst for Dream broadcasts, starting in the inaugural season in 2008.

She has seen this team through peaks — like three WNBA Finals trips in its first six seasons — and valleys, such as the Dream changing ownership three times and consistently having one of the lowest home attendances in the league.

Robinson understood the value of the WNBA product and what it could be like if her adopted hometown wrapped its arms around its own team.

And then it actually happened.

“It was really just this unified moment of, I don’t even know what to call it, just kind of pure joy as someone who has really fought for the WNBA to have a lot of the popularity and visibility that it has now,” Robinson said.

And Robinson wasn’t even in the arena. She was in New York hosting the Women’s Sports Foundation’s annual gala, which conflicted with Game 3 after the contest was moved from Thursday to Wednesday to be able to be played at State Farm Arena.

“I had my phone open,” Robinson said. “Under the table. As did everyone who was there.”

It was a long way from the many scarcely attended games that the Dream played at State Farm (previously Philips) Arena, a stretch of six consecutive losing seasons, or the contentious co-ownership tenure of former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, whose objections to the WNBA’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement led Dream players to openly campaign for Loeffler’s opponent (and eventual winner in a 2021 runoff), Rev. Raphael Warnock.

When an ownership group led by Larry Gottesdiener purchased the team in February 2021, the franchise essentially had to start from zero.

From those moments to a full house vibing to musical performances by Atlanta artists and raising a deafening clamor, virtually all in support of the Dream and star Angel Reese.

Hence, Robinson’s tears.

“It’s what we always, no pun intended, dreamed of for the city of Atlanta,” she said. “To see the crowd not just fill State Farm Arena, but to be engaged and taking such great pride in this Atlanta Dream team was amazing.”

Also watching from afar — in Michigan, to be precise — was someone who knows well the challenges of selling tickets and competing for eyeballs for women’s basketball in the Atlanta market, not to mention worked as a WNBA general manager and coach and also held Dream season tickets.

“To be where they are right now and have the momentum that they have right now, I’m just super happy for them,” former Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner told the AJC Thursday. “I think that they’ve grown. They’ve done what they can to grow and now it’s paying off.”

For Wednesday’s sellout of 17,099, the average resale price through SeatGeek was $288. That’s higher than its average prices for the Braves’ two NLDS games at Truist Park.

Demand for Saturday’s Game 4 was projecting even higher early Friday.

Moving from Gateway Center Arena (the team’s College Park home since 2021 with a capacity of about 3,600) back into State Farm Arena on a full-time basis next year, the Dream are positioned to welcome a fan base that can consistently fill it. (The team may toggle between larger and smaller seating configurations.)

Other markets have supported WNBA teams in big numbers, not least the Valkyries, who have sold out every home game (18,064) in their two-year existence.