Fans to return in big numbers to start EuroLeague season

The 2021-22 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season will begin with something for which everyone has been waiting a long time: a packed arena!

Among the teams hosting games in Round 1, three have no restrictions on arena capacity. One of them, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, has already announced a sell-out, with all 11,192 tickets to its season-opener against FC Bayern Munich at Menora Mivtachim Arena snapped up by the club’s loyal fans.

In total, at least two-thirds of the 18 EuroLeague teams will begin the season with more than 4,000 fans permitted in their arenas. Nine clubs are working under guidelines that will allow the arenas to be at more than 50 percent of capacity and five others are between 40% and 50%.

In addition to Maccabi, the two teams that can sell every seat at their respective home openers are AS Monaco and LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

Monaco will make its EuroLeague debut against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens at 19:00 CET on Thursday in the first tipoff of the new season. ASVEL hosts Zalgiris Kaunas the next day. In all three of those cases – as in several other arenas – fans must meet the local COVID-19 passport conditions for entry.

For some teams, these games will mark the first time since the 2019-20 season that they will play a home game in the EuroLeague with fans in attendance!

At the very least, the season arrives blessed at its start by the return of cheering fans to the stands and the excitement of some packed houses already in Round 1.