Red Star Hosts Zalgiris Thursday: Arena Cut by 20 Percent

Red Star’s home arena, usually filled with the loudest crowd in Serbian basketball, will not be full on Thursday, and not for lack of interest. Sectors A, D and B, along with part of the lower level Sector B, will stay closed when the red and whites host Zalgiris at 8 PM in the Belgrade Arena for the opening round of the Euroleague. The closure traces back to a penalty the Euroleague handed down last season, which the club is now carrying into the new one.

Tickets Go on Sale Tuesday, Box Office Opens on Matchday

Sales of single match tickets open Tuesday at noon, both online through tickets.kkcrvenazvezda.rs and at the club’s sales points. The KKCZ Shop on the Arena’s north plateau will be open Tuesday and Wednesday from noon to 8 PM, the sales point at Mali Kalemegdan 2 will run Tuesday from noon to 5 PM and Wednesday from 10 AM to 5 PM, while the box office on the south side of the Arena opens only on Thursday, matchday, from noon to 8 PM. The cheapest ticket, for the side sectors on level 400, costs 2,500 dinars, a center seat on the same level costs 3,000 dinars, while some seats offered through HotSport go as high as 100,000 dinars.

Because of the reduced capacity, the club has arranged replacement seats for fans whose usual spots fall inside the closed sectors, and the full entry schedule along with a diagram of the closed stands has been published on the club’s website.

A Warning from Lithuania

The day before ticket sales opened, the Lithuanian outlet Krepsinis published a piece on the history of the Delije and their relationship with Zalgiris.

“The Belgrade Arena is currently the most unsafe place for any Zalgiris fan,” journalist Tautvidas Kubilijus wrote for Krepsinis, adding that even an average Zalgiris fan with no ties to the ultras should avoid provocations in Belgrade.

Kubilijus traces the animosity back to April 2022, when Red Star’s players refused to hold a banner in the colors of the Ukrainian flag during an away match in Kaunas, after which Zalgiris fans in their section displayed a NATO flag. Since then, meetings between the two clubs have carried a political weight rarely seen elsewhere in the Euroleague.

Red Star enters the new season off a 91-87 preseason win over Aris, but Thursday marks the first official test for coach Ibon Navaro’s team. Tickets for the sectors operating as usual are selling fast, the Euroleague penalty is still in effect, and the red and whites will answer the Lithuanian warning, as always, from the stands.