Red Star vs Aris: 10,000 Season Tickets Debut

The line outside Aleksandar Nikolic Hall tomorrow night will not be made up only of fans who bought a ticket for that one game. Ten thousand people who paid for the entire season in advance will be standing there too, and none of them have yet seen this Red Star roster play live on home court. That is why an ordinary preseason friendly has suddenly taken on the weight of a small premiere.

Red Star hosts Aris on Friday, September 18, at 7 p.m. at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall, in what will be the last full dress rehearsal before the season officially begins. The Thessaloniki club has already shown its hand, and not in the most flattering way for the red and whites: in Cyprus a few days ago, Aris beat Red Star 98-74, in a game that also saw Odzelej leave the court injured, as we reported at the time. Tomorrow the home side gets a chance to set that record straight in front of its own crowd, even though a friendly’s final score is rarely what people remember afterward.

The club has decided to use this particular match for something else as well: a kind of open door for every season ticket holder. More than 10,000 season tickets have been sold for the 2026/27 campaign, and every one of those holders is entitled to walk in tomorrow, regardless of whether their ticket covers Stand A or a VIP box. That is precisely why Red Star had to publish a detailed entry map in advance, so that a crowd this size does not end up bunched at the wrong doors half an hour before tip-off.

The system looks like a code at first glance, but it is straightforward once you read it through:

• Stand A and Level 400 North in the Arena enter through Stand A
• Stand B and Level 400 North in the Arena enter through Stand B
• Stand C and Level 400 South enter through Stand C; Stand D and Level 400 South enter through Stand D
• Parterre B and the White Box South enter through the Parterre B gate
• Parterre 4 and the Blue Box enter through the Parterre 4 gate
• The White Box and the White Box Center share one entrance, the White Box gate
• The VIP box, VIP gallery, Parterre 4 VIP Zvezdas section and SkyBox enter through Service Entrance 2
• Honorary seating, both the main and side sections, enters through the Small Press gate

What makes this schedule matter beyond a single evening announcement is that it will not apply only to tomorrow’s game. The club has confirmed the same entry system stays in place for every future match Red Star plays at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall, so fans will not have to memorize a new layout each time the red and whites step onto that floor. It is a practical move from a club that has suddenly attracted a crowd larger than the hall is used to handling for a preseason game.

For the team itself, tomorrow’s game is the last chance to test things in match conditions before the serious part of the schedule begins. On Thursday, September 24, Red Star opens its EuroLeague campaign against Zalgiris at Belgrade Arena, in front of a far bigger crowd than Aleksandar Nikolic Hall could ever hold. Until then, the coaching staff has only one more training day and one more game to settle the rotations, and the players who have just joined the club get their first taste tomorrow of what it feels like on home court in front of thousands of fans who paid for the season without knowing a single name on the roster.

The defeat in Cyprus does not count in this story, and it should not, since it was only a form check far from home. What matters more is what the coach takes away from tomorrow’s game once the scoreline stops being the only headline, and the real measure of where this team stands only becomes clear Thursday night, when Red Star opens the EuroLeague against Zalgiris.