<p>Small amount of tickets for the general public and issues surrounding the Chinnaswamy Stadium made it “untenable” to have this edition’s IPL final in Bengaluru, said league chairman Arun Dhumal on Thursday, a day after the BCCI decided to shift the 2026 finale to Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.</p><p>Dharamsala (Qualifier 1) and New Chandigarh (Eliminator and Qualifier 2) will host the three playoffs. </p><p>“See ideally it should have been Bengaluru (by virtue of Royal Challengers being the defending champions),” Dhumal told PTI. “We checked up with KSCA. Because what happened last year (stampede), they had some challenges. State government needs to give free tickets to legislators and KSCA has some other commitments for their members.</p><p>“Stadium capacity is also not that high. Very few tickets were available there for league games as well. Since IPL final attracts people from around the world, we need to have a larger inventory (of tickets) available for fans. We would have the ICC board meeting around that time too, a lot of members are coming for that.”</p><p>Ahmedabad will be hosting a fourth final in five years, and pointed out about the negative sentiment regarding the move, Dhumal said: “No, ideally the winning team gets the final but given the issues we touched upon, it becomes untenable to have it in Bengaluru. Let’s say if CSK won last season we would surely do it in Chennai.”</p><p>BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, speaking to the media in Guwahati, claimed that KSCA’s request for extra 10,000 tickets, apart from the 15% tickets that the Board allots for host association, forced them to take the playoff and final away from Bengaluru.</p> .<p>“As per IPL protocol, we are required to provide only 15% of the total seating capacity as complimentary tickets to the host association. However, we received information from various sources indicating that during the hosting of IPL league matches, the Karnataka State Association was claiming a significantly higher number of complimentary tickets,” Saikia told reporters.</p><p>“Consequently, we sent them an email requesting details regarding this matter. They stated that over and above the 15% complimentary ticket quota, they would require an additional, substantial allocation of tickets for their members, affiliated clubs and various others. Most surprisingly, they also requested tickets for their local MLAs and MLCs.</p><p>“Over and above the 15% allocation, they were demanding approximately 10,000 additional tickets. Consequently, we were compelled to make the difficult decision to relocate the matches from Bengaluru,” he said.</p>
<p>Small amount of tickets for the general public and issues surrounding the Chinnaswamy Stadium made it “untenable” to have this edition’s IPL final in Bengaluru, said league chairman Arun Dhumal on Thursday, a day after the BCCI decided to shift the 2026 finale to Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.</p><p>Dharamsala (Qualifier 1) and New Chandigarh (Eliminator and Qualifier 2) will host the three playoffs. </p><p>“See ideally it should have been Bengaluru (by virtue of Royal Challengers being the defending champions),” Dhumal told PTI. “We checked up with KSCA. Because what happened last year (stampede), they had some challenges. State government needs to give free tickets to legislators and KSCA has some other commitments for their members.</p><p>“Stadium capacity is also not that high. Very few tickets were available there for league games as well. Since IPL final attracts people from around the world, we need to have a larger inventory (of tickets) available for fans. We would have the ICC board meeting around that time too, a lot of members are coming for that.”</p><p>Ahmedabad will be hosting a fourth final in five years, and pointed out about the negative sentiment regarding the move, Dhumal said: “No, ideally the winning team gets the final but given the issues we touched upon, it becomes untenable to have it in Bengaluru. Let’s say if CSK won last season we would surely do it in Chennai.”</p><p>BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, speaking to the media in Guwahati, claimed that KSCA’s request for extra 10,000 tickets, apart from the 15% tickets that the Board allots for host association, forced them to take the playoff and final away from Bengaluru.</p> .<p>“As per IPL protocol, we are required to provide only 15% of the total seating capacity as complimentary tickets to the host association. However, we received information from various sources indicating that during the hosting of IPL league matches, the Karnataka State Association was claiming a significantly higher number of complimentary tickets,” Saikia told reporters.</p><p>“Consequently, we sent them an email requesting details regarding this matter. They stated that over and above the 15% complimentary ticket quota, they would require an additional, substantial allocation of tickets for their members, affiliated clubs and various others. Most surprisingly, they also requested tickets for their local MLAs and MLCs.</p><p>“Over and above the 15% allocation, they were demanding approximately 10,000 additional tickets. Consequently, we were compelled to make the difficult decision to relocate the matches from Bengaluru,” he said.</p>
