Atlanta Dream says it warned the WNBA 2 months ago about scheduling conflict concerns. The league is hosting a finals game at lunchtime anyway

The league moved Game 6 of the champion series from its primetime slot of 8 p.m. ET to 12:30 p.m. ET slot as an outcome of a scheduling dispute. The video 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 bigger crowds, however a currently set up routine season NBA match at the arena required the league to go up the start time.

Champion competitor the Atlanta Dream stated it cautioned the WNBA about prospective scheduling concerns months earlier, however that its caution went unheeded.

“Two months back, when the WNBA completed playoff dates and times, we raised issues that the W Finals set up contravened NBA video games at State Farm Arena,” the Dream ownership group composed in an open letter released on Tuesday. “As we moved through the playoffs, we repeated those issues. Our issues did not get the attention, nor the seriousness that they was worthy of.

“Perhaps it was presumed that the Dream would not make it this far. Possibly, our location in the Finals was not represented. Whatever the factor, the truth is that we are here,” the letter continued. “Playing a midday video game on a Thursday is not what we would have picked and not what we defended.”

The league did not react to Fortune‘s ask for remark.

The 30-year-old WNBA has actually seen a surge in development following the intro of an associate of star-studded young gamers, swell of financial investments, and media-rights plan worth about $3.1 billion over 11 years that catapulted it from a cherished league amongst a cadre of fans to a pillar of American mainstream sports. The league made an approximated $200 million to $300 million in earnings last season, and the Golden State Valkyries, the other champion competitor, ended up being the first string to reach a $1 billion appraisal previously this year, the only group in females’s sports to cross that limit.

What are the repercussions of the scheduling modification for the WNBA?

While sports fans and beat authors alike have actually revealed their ire towards the league over the scheduling modification, arguing lots of will have difficulty seeing the video game while at work and regreting that other leagues would never ever arrange a possible title-deciding video game throughout a midday time slot, it stays to be seen if there will be unfavorable monetary repercussions from the relocation. The video game at the larger-capacity State Farm Arena is offered outthough costs for Game 6 tickets dropped to as low as $32, according to TicketDataa portion of what they cost 2 days previously.

Rankings for the video game might likewise be meaningfully lower than for a primetime slot. The very first 3 Finals video games, held both at 3:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET, balanced about 1.7 million audiences, on track to surpass the 2024 Finals as the league’s most enjoyed championship-deciding series. According to Nielsen Big Data, the overall Television audience at 12 p.m. this month is 44.3 million, about 60% smaller sized than the 106.2 million audiences at 8 p.m. The video game will still air on USA Network and stream on Peacock, however Hollywood Reporter‘s Alex Weprin reported that the video game will simulcast on E! and Syfy instead of the common CNBC.

The WNBA has actually experienced many circumstances of moving video game places to accommodate occasion scheduling disputes. In 2018, the Washington Mystics were required from their home court for the playoffs, playing rather at George Washington University’s Charles E. Smith Center, and later playing Finals video games at George Mason University’s EagleBank Arena, about 20 miles west of their home arena in downtown DC.

In 2015, the Valkyries made a surprise playoff look. Since its home Chase Center was reserved for the Laver Cup tennis competition, its home championship game were held at the SAP Center in San Jose more than 40 miles away from its normal place.