The San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans play two regular-season games in Europe this January, and the tickets don’t go on sale the way most American fans expect. There’s no 10 a.m. queue to join. You enter a free ballot — a lottery, in plain English — and it closes on September 6, 2026. That’s four months before tip-off. So you’ll be pricing January flights long before you know whether you have seats.
That gap is the whole planning problem. Here’s what’s worth locking in now, and what should sit untouched until the middle of September.
When does the NBA Europe ticket ballot close?
Registration closes on September 6, 2026, and entering costs nothing. The ballot gives you a chance to buy tickets, not the tickets themselves. Every applicant hears back by email and text before the sale opens. Winners get a unique link and instructions for it. Missing the date doesn’t shut you out, but it leaves you fewer ways in.
The league’s official ticket page for the Manchester game is blunt about the terms. It states that registration is free and closes on September 6, and that because demand is expected to run high, a winning entry still doesn’t guarantee tickets will be there to buy. Read that second half twice. It’s the reason a deposit-heavy trip plan is risky this early.
Paris and Manchester don’t sell on the same day
The two games share a ballot deadline and almost nothing else. Paris sells first. Manchester follows two days later. If you want both, you’re working two separate on-sale mornings in the same week, each one running on European clocks.
| Game | Venue | Ballot closes | Tickets on sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paris, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2027. | Accor Arena. | Sept. 6, 2026. | Sept. 15, 2026. |
| Manchester, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2027. | Co-op Live. | Sept. 6, 2026. | Sept. 17, 2026. |
The NBA confirmed both fixtures: the Accor Arena in Paris on Thursday, Jan. 14, and Co-op Live in Manchester on Sunday, Jan. 17. Those two dates are fixed and won’t move. Everything wrapped around them is still yours to decide.
Can you see both games on one trip?
Yes, and the calendar cooperates. Paris tips off on a Thursday and Manchester on a Sunday, which leaves three days in between. That’s room for the train, two nights in either city, and no sprinting. One transatlantic flight covers the pair. For a lot of fans, two games are what finally justify the airfare.
It’s a different animal from a domestic trip. With NBA travel packages for a home arena, the date and the building are settled before anyone touches a flight search. Here the venue is certain and your entry isn’t. Plan the trip in that order and it stays manageable.
Getting between the two cities is the piece most people underestimate. There’s no direct high-speed rail from Paris to Manchester, so the trip runs either through London by train or on a short hop by air. Both work fine. Neither is something you want to sort out the week of, because the Friday and Saturday between the games are exactly when everyone else attending both will be moving too.
The border work starts earlier than you think
Two countries means two sets of small details. Passports need real validity remaining, not just an unexpired date, and renewals get slow in the fall. Fans who’ve handled crossing a border for a regular-season game already know the drill. Sort the documents in September while you’re waiting on ballot news anyway. It’s the one task with no downside.
What should you book before the ballot results arrive?
Book nothing you can’t unwind. Hold refundable flights and cancellable rooms, keep an eye on January fares, and treat the ticket question as separate from the travel question. Mid-January is a quiet stretch for transatlantic fares. You can usually hold a good one and walk away later without much damage.
Cancellable rates cost a little more than the locked-in ones. That premium is the price of not guessing. It’s the same math behind weighing coverage on a trip whose outcome isn’t settled, and it applies harder here, because the uncertainty sits at the front of the trip rather than the end.
One more habit worth keeping: don’t book the return flight tight against the Manchester game. Sunday-night departures out of a full arena are a bad bet. Give it a morning.
Winning the ballot isn’t the same as holding tickets
A successful entry buys you access to a sale, and the league says outright that inventory may still run out. So the honest way to read a ballot win is as permission to try, not as a seat. That’s not pessimism. It’s how heavily oversubscribed events have worked for years, and it’s why we won’t quote availability or a price on either game until the tickets are in hand.
Neither of these games exists as an off-the-shelf product right now, and pretending otherwise would be the easiest way to waste your September. What does exist is the ability to build the trip to order around the January dates — flights, hotels, the train between cities, and the ticket question handled once it resolves. That’s the structure this particular trip needs.
Frequently Asked Questions About an NBA Europe Trip
Do I need to enter separate ballots for Paris and Manchester?
Yes. Each game runs its own registration and its own on-sale date, so entering one does nothing for the other. Fans who want both should complete both forms before the September 6 cutoff.
What happens if I don’t win the ballot?
You can still buy during the general on-sale, which opens Sept. 15 for Paris and Sept. 17 for Manchester. Inventory is thinner by then and moves quickly. Holding flexible travel until that point keeps the option open without stranding you.
How far ahead should I book January flights to Europe?
Most travelers watching mid-January routes start pricing in September and commit once the ticket picture clears. Fares that far out tend to be reasonable, and refundable fares let you take a good one early without betting the trip on it.
Is it cheaper to attend just one of the two games?
Marginally, and usually not by enough to matter. The transatlantic flight is the largest single line either way. Adding the second city mostly adds train fare and a few nights of lodging, which is why so many fans end up doing both.
Do the two games count as regular-season games?
They do. Both count in the standings for the Spurs and the Pelicans, which is part of the appeal. These aren’t exhibitions, and the rosters that travel are the real ones.
Ready to hold January open while the ballot runs?
The deadline is the easy part. Enter both ballots before September 6, then decide how much of the trip you’re willing to hold while the results come in. That’s the judgment call, and it’s a lot easier with someone handling the moving pieces.
We build these trips one at a time, across whichever sport and city the schedule puts in front of us, and we don’t promise tickets, rates, or availability we haven’t verified. If January in Paris and Manchester is on your list, plan a custom trip around the January games and we’ll structure it so a ballot result doesn’t wreck it.