2 min readUpdated: May 8, 2026 10:19 PM IST The IPL 2026 final will be held at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 31. When the BCCI announced the playoffs schedule earlier, it offered only a brief explanation for dropping Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium — home of defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru — as the final venue. “Owing to certain requirements from the local association and authorities that were beyond the scope of BCCI’s established guidelines and protocols, the venue has been shifted and reassigned,” the board’s statement read. BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia has now told Sportstar what those requirements were. “As per IPL protocol, we are required to provide only 15 per cent of the total seating capacity as complimentary tickets to the host association. This constitutes the standard protocol; all host state associations receive a 15 per cent allocation of their total capacity in the form of complimentary tickets,” he said. The Karnataka State Cricket Association, he claimed, sought considerably more. “That was much beyond the allocated 15 per cent.” “We wrote …