The idea of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) playing an IPL season without M Chinnaswamy Stadium has stopped being shocking. What is shocking is how normal it now feels. Months after the deadly stampede that followed RCB’s maiden IPL title celebrations, the franchise is officially preparing for life away from its spiritual home.
No IPL 2026 matches at Chinnaswamy Stadium
According to a TOI report, RCB have finalised plans to split their IPL 2026 home matches between DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium in Raipur. The arrangement will see five matches in Navi Mumbai and two in Raipur, a major change for a franchise that has called Chinnaswamy home since the league’s birth in 2008. A sad news for Bengaluru fans certainly.
The decision follows the tragic June 4 stampede outside the stadium after RCB’s historic IPL 2025 title celebrations, an incident that claimed 11 lives and left over 50 injured. Since then, the venue has been effectively frozen out of top-level cricket. The ICC stripped it of Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 matches, the BCCI ruled it out for the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, and even domestic fixtures like the KSCA Maharaja T20 Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy were shifted away.
Chinnaswamy under renovation but RCB already moving on
The Karnataka State Cricket Association has been racing against time to revive the venue. Renovation work is currently underway to comply with new safety norms laid down by the Karnataka government after the Justice Michael D’Cunha Committee labelled the stadium “highly unsafe” for large gatherings. Entry and exit gates are being widened, internal corridors redesigned, and emergency evacuation systems installed. The target is to finish by February, just before IPL season begins. Yet, RCB can’t take their chances and will have to play their home games away from ‘home’.
Sources say the franchise is unwilling to return so soon after the trauma. Players and supporters were deeply affected by last year’s events, and the franchise doesn’t want its title defence overshadowed by logistical anxiety and security concerns. The DY Patil Stadium has been rewarded consistently for hosting superb matches. The matches that were supposed to happen in Bengaluru at the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 were shifted to Navi Mumbai and it will always be remembered as a venue where the Women in Blue ended their hoodoo!
