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A New WNBA Champion Awaits

The Valkyries and Dream open the WNBA Finals today, and whichever team wins four games will be a champion for the first time.

Today at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, the Golden State Valkyries host the Atlanta Dream at Chase Center in San Francisco in Game 1 of the 2026 WNBA Finals. Whatever happens over the next two weeks, the league will crown a first-time champion. It is only the eighth time in the WNBA's 30-year history that the Finals have featured two teams both still seeking their first title.

An Expansion Team Meets a Comeback

The Valkyries, an expansion franchise that only began play last year, finished as the No. 2 seed, led the league in home attendance, and hold home-court advantage after sweeping Dallas in the first round and beating the Las Vegas Aces in the semifinals. The fourth-seeded Dream swept Washington, then got past the New York Liberty to reach the Finals for the first time in this series format and their first semifinal since 2018. Golden State has an edge in recent history: the Valkyries won all three regular-season meetings in a span of 11 days in June and July, though Game 1 will be the teams' first meeting in more than three months. Atlanta's Angel Reese is among the stars to watch, and the availability of Dream guard Allisha Gray for Game 1 remains a question.

The schedule has a notable wrinkle. Games 3 and 4, set for October 21 and October 24, were moved to the NBA Hawks' State Farm Arena, which seats more than 17,000, after the league and its partners made scheduling adjustments, including the Hawks agreeing to shift the start time of their own home opener on October 24. It will be the first WNBA Finals game played in the Atlanta market since 2013. The best-of-seven series follows a 2-2-1-1-1 format and is only in its second year as a seven-game Finals, with Game 2 on Monday night and a possible Game 7 as late as October 31.

A packed professional basketball arena with a championship trophy on a pedestal at center court
The 2026 WNBA Finals open today in San Francisco, with a first-time champion guaranteed.

The WNBA began play in 1996, and its history is one of growth, with attendance and attention climbing in recent years. A Finals between a one-year-old franchise and a veteran team coming back to the biggest stage in years fits that arc. The two sides have never met on this stage, and neither has ever celebrated a title. By the end of the month, one of them will have done something the other still dreams of.