Balaídos seating guide: sit on a long side, and skip resale seats in the unfinished Gol end

For a first Celta match at Balaídos this winter I would sit in Río Alto Central, high on the south side near halfway, and if that has gone, in Tribuna Alta Central on the opposite long side. The same goes for Atlético's visit on the weekend of 20 December 2026 if you are going as a neutral. Atlético supporters have a separate way in, through the away section.

One end of the ground is still a building site. Three stands are finished, and the new Gol stand behind the west goal has opened only its front rows, which were offered first to Gol's season-ticket holders. When the rest of it opens is not settled. Resale listings already sell Gol seats without saying which rows, and I would not buy them.

Information checked on 13 October 2026.

Three stands are finished, and the Gol end is only its front rows

Celta call the ground Abanca Balaídos. Tribuna, the main stand, runs along Avenida de Fragoso on the north side, and Río faces it from the south, named after the River Lagares that runs beneath it. Marcador is behind the east goal and Gol behind the west goal.

The club's seat plan names the tiers in Galician, Baixo or Baixa for the lower one and Alto or Alta for the upper, so you will see Río Baixo and Tribuna Alta where Spanish newspapers often write Bajo and Baja. Most zones then end in Central, Área or Córner, which I read as the stretch around halfway, the part level with the penalty area, and the end of the stand nearest the corner flag.

The rebuild began in 2015 and has gone one stand at a time. Tribuna and Río have completed their renovation, Marcador was rebuilt from the ground up in 2023, and Gol is the one under construction. With part of the new Gol open, Celta put the capacity at 23,432 at the start of 2026/27. That part is the front rows, about 800 seats, with the rest of the stand still going up behind them. I would choose one of the other three stands rather than the partly open Gol end.

For a first visit I would take Río Alto Central

Río Alto Central puts you on a long side, in the upper tier, near halfway, and Tribuna Alta Central on the other long side comes next.

I would put Marcador below both because of the view of the near goal. After the first match in the rebuilt Marcador, against Barcelona in June 2023, Faro de Vigo reported complaints from fans in rows 10 and 11 of Marcador Alto who could not see the last few metres before the goal line, even sitting down. The paper added that it got worse when the rows below them stood up. A poster on the Fame Celeste forum said the same of rows 6 and 7 that week. After a Europa League match against PAOK in October 2025, the Vigo site Metropolitano reported that the seats added at the top of Marcador Alto now showed the near goal but that pillars blocked the view, and that across much of Marcador fans still waited for the reaction around them to know whether a goal had gone in.

Marcador Baixo, below, is the ground's animation section. Celta describe it as the stand where people spend the 90 minutes on their feet, and LaLiga requires everyone going into the animation section to be identified. It is the loudest part of Balaídos and the wrong place if you want to sit down.

December is the wettest month in AEMET's averages for Vigo Airport. Tribuna and Río were given new roofs in the works between 2015 and 2018, but I could not confirm that the cover reaches the front rows, including the three rows added at the front of Río Baixo in 2025. For a December match I would not book the first rows of a Baixo section.

The new Gol end may open for the derby or in February, and season-ticket holders get it first

On 18 September 2026 the mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero, said the new Gol should be ready to take fans for Celta's match on 2 or 3 January 2027, the Galician derby against Deportivo. The same day, El Español reported that the city government accepted it would be hard to have the stand in service by then. In July the paper had set out the timetable: 23 months of building from January 2025 takes the job to the end of December 2026, and tests, certification and handover could push the opening into February 2027. It also pointed out that in 2023 Marcador opened later than the city had said. I found no opening date from Celta themselves.

Whichever date it turns out to be, the club has said who comes first. Before the first match of this season, the Gol season-ticket holders were offered their usual places in the new rows before the general sale opened. For the rest of the stand, the season-ticket FAQ says that once those holders have been relocated, Celta will open a window for other season-ticket holders to move into Gol and a period for new season tickets, all depending on the works. The plans also include a family section that is smoke-free and accessible.

Until the rest of the stand opens, the only new seats in use are the front rows, which La Voz de Galicia's June guide to the new seat plan calls Gol Fondo. Resale listings for the derby already sell seats labelled Gol and Fondo without saying which rows they are, so I would not buy them.

The same guide describes the new Gol as almost the same design as Marcador. When it opens, the first thing I will look for is whether it has the same problem with the near goal, and I will update this section then.

Buy from Celta when the sale opens, in the name of whoever is going

Celta sell through their own ticket page and the outlets the club lists as authorised: Entradas.com, El Corte Inglés, Tomaticket and Bstadium. Stay away from unofficial resale sites, where you may end up with fake tickets that will not get you in. Tickets are issued in a name and cannot be changed or refunded unless the match is officially called off or suspended, and one purchase is capped at six.

Each sale opens to Carné Celtista holders for 24 hours and then to everyone. This season the general sale has opened between 15 and 32 days before the match. For Atlético's last visit, on 5 October 2025, the club announced the sale 25 days ahead, from €30 for Carné Celtista holders and from €40 for everyone else. Prices are dynamic and can change while the sale is open, so treat €40 as the cheapest price on the day that sale opened.

For the Atlético match the club's ticket page shows only a button to be notified, with the date and time still unconfirmed, so I would start checking it from mid-November.

Two kinds of ticket are sold only at the stadium box office: places for people with reduced mobility, in the last row of Río Baixo, and the discounted ticket for children under eight.

Atlético fans go in through the away corner of Río Alto, not the general sale

Until the new Gol opens, visiting supporters sit in Río Alto, in a section at the Gol end of the south stand, by gates 19 and 20. Plans reported in summer 2025 included changes to the away entrance around gate 20, leading to the away section in Río Alto. The section holds just over 1,000 people and is due to move to Gol Alto once that tier is in use. Atlético's visit, on the weekend of 20 December, comes before either opening date, so I expect the away section to be in Río Alto that day.

For the rest of the ground, Celta's FAQ says general tickets are for Celta supporters, fans of the visiting team have to buy through their own club and only for the away section, and anyone wearing the rival team's colours or symbols outside that section is refused entry.

For an Atlético fan, then, the way in is Atlético's away allocation, which only club members can apply for. I found no figure for this season's allocation at Balaídos. Applications close 48 hours after the kick-off time is officially confirmed, and the Atlético away-ticket guide explains how they work.