The 2026 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is likely to begin on March 26, but there are concerns over the possible venues of few franchises, including Royal Challengers Bangaluru (RCB), whose home ground, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, has not hosted a single game since the stampede case in June last year, which saw many people getting killed during the trophy celebration of the franchise.

The Rajasthan Royals (RR)and RCB will have to inform their home ground to the IPL Organization Committee by 27th of January. The BCC officials have given a deadline to the committee as Bengaluru can organize five matches at the DY Patel Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai and the rest to home games in Raipur.

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The final schedule of the IPL is expected to be released after the announcement of election dates in Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Bengal. The Bengaluru franchise is scared due to the Karnataka government’s law, as it has been trying to show that it wants to host the matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, but that’s not the case.

RCB to host five IPL 2026 games at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai

A top BCCI source has revealed that the Karnataka government has passed a law after the incident that happened in June last year, as under this law, if any such match or event is being held anywhere and if the incident occurs on the outer roads surrounding it, the organizers will be held responsible.

RCB wants to host its five home games at the DY Patil Stadium, but for that, it will need to obtain an NOC from the Mumbai Indians franchise. According to the rules of the tournament, whenever you want to host your home matches in any other franchise city, you have to get an NOC from that franchise.

The election dates are not announced yet which means the schedule of the league has been delayed but the likely cities this year will be Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai (Wankhede), Kolkata, Ahmedabad, New Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Dharamshala, Visakhapatnam, Guwahati, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Navi Mumbai (DY Patil), and Thiruvananthapuram.