Martínez Valero seating guide: choose your zone early, as this season's sales have opened days before kick-off

This season Elche have opened the general sale four to six days before each home match, on the club's own ticket site, and each ticket carries the name of the person who will use it. So choose your zone before the sale starts, because there is little time once it does. For a first visit I would wait for Preferencia Cubierta, the covered rows of the lower stand opposite the main stand, and if that has gone or is over budget, the Anillo above it.

Atlético's visit is set for the weekend of 29 November 2026. Neither the day nor the kick-off time had been fixed, and nothing was on sale. Expect the sale four to seven days before whichever day the match lands on, so from about 20 November I would keep an eye on the club's news page.

Information checked on 14 October 2026.

Season-ticket holders take most of the seats, leaving few for anyone else

The Martínez Valero holds 31,388, and Elche say more than 27,000 of those seats are taken by season-ticket holders. This season the season ticket covers all 19 home league matches without exception, and the Días del Club, the fixtures it used to leave out, have been dropped. That leaves fewer than 4,400 seats outside the season tickets, for the general sale, the away section and everything else.

The ground is not always full, though. Atlético's visit last season, on a Wednesday evening in April, drew 27,587, according to ESPN.

A season-ticket holder who cannot go can release the seat through the club, and if it sells, the holder receives 30 per cent of the price. This season Elche offered seat releases for the Barcelona and Real Madrid matches, up to 24 hours before kick-off. Check the sale announcement for Atlético's match to see whether they apply to it. Before Real Madrid's visit in September, Elche put what they called the last available tickets on sale the day before the game.

Recent sales opened four to seven days out, online and in the spectator's name

This season the general sale has opened five days ahead for Barcelona, six for Real Sociedad and four for both Real Madrid and Celta. For Atlético last season it opened a week ahead, on Wednesday 15 April at 17:00, for a match on Wednesday 22 April. The opening time has ranged from midday to 17:00, and once open, the online sale runs until match day or until tickets run out. Elche announce each sale in a Spanish-language news post on the club website.

Holders of the Carnet Franjiverde, the club's supporters' card, get 24 hours' priority only for the two fixtures Elche class as Tipo A, Real Madrid and Barcelona. I would not expect a priority window for Atlético, so I would treat the general sale as the first chance to buy.

Until match day the sale is online only, through Elche's ticket site. Online tickets are nominative: the details on each one have to match the spectator who goes in, so every ticket goes in the name of the person using it. Elche say resale is expressly prohibited, for season-ticket holders and everyone else, and tell fans not to buy from third parties or unauthorised platforms because of fraud and problems getting into the stadium. There are no changes or refunds, and every spectator needs a ticket, babies included.

I would try at three points: the hour the sale opens, the day before the match, and the box office on the day. For Atlético last season the box offices at Fondo Sur and Fondo Norte opened two hours before kick-off, as long as tickets were left, and for Celta this month they opened three hours before.

The stadium is on the eastern edge of Elche, on the airport side of town. Since 20 July the two avenues around it, Avenida de Manuel Martínez Valero and Avenida José Esquitino Sempere, have been dug up for a five-month rebuild. The city says access to the stadium stays open, with routes adjusted as the work moves. For the early-season matches the city added buses on lines F, K1 and K2, with a service to the city centre for half an hour after the final whistle. Bus R11 links Elche with Alicante-Elche airport.

Elche price each stand by ring and by roof

The ground has two levels on all four sides: the lower stands, and an upper ring that the price lists call the Anillo. Tribuna is the main stand, Preferencia faces it across the pitch, Fondo Norte and Fondo Sur are behind the goals, and a Curva fills each corner.

The prices split the lower stands into Cubierta, covered, and Descubierta, uncovered. The uncovered sections are the rows nearest the pitch, on the long sides as well as behind the goals, and the covered ones sit higher up behind them. None of the Anillo zones in this season's price lists carries the word Cubierta.

Elche brought in what they call a sectorización of the stadium this season, a reorganisation of its sections, so older seat maps may not match. Go by the ticket site for the match you are buying, and check the block if being under cover matters to you. The club's 3D seat map shows the numbered blocks, though not the price names.

For a first visit I would wait for Preferencia Cubierta

Preferencia Cubierta puts you on a long side, in the covered back rows of the lower stand, for less than the lower Tribuna. When Elche fans compared the two halves of Preferencia on a supporters' forum in 2012, two of the replies preferred the covered rows, for the view from higher up and for staying dry. A long-time Preferencia regular said he always bought the cheaper uncovered rows. The thread is old, but this season's prices still split Preferencia into Cubierta and Descubierta.

If Preferencia Cubierta has gone, I would take Anillo Preferencia, the upper ring on the same side. It keeps the long-side view, and on both price lists below it was cheaper than most of the lower seats behind the goals. The lower Tribuna is the most expensive part of the ground, and its front rows are uncovered.

Behind the goals, Fondo Sur holds the Grada de Animación Fondo Sur 1923, the club's singing section. The cheapest seats in the ground have been in the upper ring behind a goal.

There were no prices yet for this season's Atlético match. Elche's general-sale price list for Atlético's visit last season ran from €65 in the upper ring behind the goals to €260 in the covered centre of Tribuna, with Preferencia Cubierta at €140 to €160. This season's two biggest home games cost more. Elche's list for Barcelona in August ran from €95 to €340, with Preferencia Cubierta at €210 to €240 and Anillo Preferencia at €110 to €140, and TodoAlicante and Diario Franjiverde reported €110 to €340 for Real Madrid in September. I would budget for somewhere between last season's Atlético prices and this season's Barcelona ones.

Atlético fans apply through Atlético, not the general sale

For Atlético's visit last season, Elche said the seats for Atlético fans would be handled by Atlético, and that those fans had to prove their identity with a nominative ticket to get into their section. Atlético allocate away tickets by application, and only club members can apply. Older stadium plans put the away entrances, gates 20 and 22, at the north end, but go by the section and gate printed on this season's ticket. The Atlético away-ticket guide explains how the applications work.