Buy Alaves vs Malaga tickets for the 2026/27 season and you get a fixture that has never once been settled by more than a single goal, in one of the oldest grounds still operating in Spanish football. Alaves host Malaga CF at Mendizorrotza in Vitoria-Gasteiz on Sunday 25 October 2026, matchday ten of the La Liga season. The kickoff time has not been fixed yet, and the reason for that is worth understanding before you book anything.
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La Liga sets its kickoff times a few weeks in advance rather than with the fixture list, and at the time of writing the league's own calendar still shows this match without a slot. Spanish matches in that window land anywhere between early afternoon and 21:00 local, which is a spread of seven hours. Anyone planning travel around this fixture should hold off on non-refundable bookings until the slot is published.
Alaves play in a 19,840-capacity ground that opened in 1924 and is now the third oldest in Spanish professional football, behind only El Molinon and Mestalla. Their visitors are back in the top division for the first time since 2018, having come up through the play-offs. They also travel roughly 900km to get here. Both of those facts shape how this match will sell.
Start with the distance. Vitoria-Gasteiz sits in the Basque Country and Malaga is on the Costa del Sol, close to 900km apart by road and most of a day's travel each way. Malaga CF have an enormous local following, but almost none of it makes a Sunday round trip of that length. The visiting allocation at Mendizorrotza will be modest and it may well not sell out.
Home demand is steadier but not extreme. Alaves raised season ticket prices by around 5% for 2026/27, which tells you the club felt it had the standing to do so, but a 19,840-seat ground against a newly promoted opponent is not the Basque derby against Athletic or Real Sociedad. Those are the fixtures where Mendizorrotza becomes genuinely hard to enter.
The club sells single-match tickets directly, and the practical guidance for Mendizorrotza is that seats typically go on sale roughly three to four weeks before a match. For this fixture that puts the club release in late September or early October. If you are reading this earlier than that, the answer is not that tickets are gone; it is that they have not been released yet.
Malaga's own position adds a layer worth understanding. They were relegated from La Liga in 2018 and spent the years that followed working back up through the Spanish pyramid, so this is not a club returning after one bad season. Their following at home is large by any measure and La Rosaleda is far bigger than Mendizorrotza, but a support rebuilt over eight years in the lower divisions is a local one. It fills a stadium in Andalusia rather than filling coaches to the Basque Country.
What that adds up to is a fixture where a buyer has real choice. The gap between the ends and the main stand at Mendizorrotza is meaningful in both price and comfort, and on a match with this demand profile you can pick your sector rather than take what is left.
Yes, and comfortably. Alaves sell single-match seats through their own channel for every home fixture, and this is not one of the two or three matches a season where the ground fills on member demand alone. The Basque derbies are the exception; a newly promoted visitor from Andalusia is not.
Season ticket holders and members still come first, as they do everywhere in Spain. What reaches open sale is whatever the abono base has not taken. At a ground this size that leaves a workable number rather than a scramble. Face values help: match tickets at Mendizorrotza have typically run from around 30 euros at the ends to roughly 75 euros in the central premium areas, with the Tribuna Preferencia sitting between the two.
The Spanish rules that catch out visitors are worth knowing. Tickets are increasingly issued to a named holder and identification can be checked on entry. Access to the ground is by the gate printed on the ticket rather than whichever entrance you reach first. None of that is difficult, but it does mean the details on a booking matter more than the price.
It is worth being precise about which Alaves fixtures are genuinely difficult, because the difference is stark. Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad are the matches Mendizorrotza sells out on member demand, and Real Madrid and Barcelona are the two that draw the neutral and tourist interest. Everything else, including this one, behaves like a normal league fixture at a 19,840-seat ground. Applying derby-day urgency to a match against a newly promoted side is how buyers end up paying more than they needed to.
The resale marketplace covers two situations here. The first is timing: if you are planning from abroad before the club release opens, resale is where seats exist. The second is choice, because a club release sells the sectors it has left rather than the sector you want, and resale is where a specific seat in a specific stand can still be found.
Five things move the price here: which stand you choose, how central the seat sits, whether the club release has opened yet, how close to 25 October you are buying and whether the listing carries hospitality. Spanish face values are moderate and Mendizorrotza is a small ground, so the spread below is narrower than at the giants of the league.
| Ticket Type | Resale Price Range | Best For | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fondo Sur | £28 – £55 | Buyers who came for the atmosphere | The home end and the noisiest part of the ground. Banners and flags can obstruct the view |
| Fondo Norte | £28 – £50 | Value behind the opposite goal | The calmer end, and the stand that holds the visiting sections |
| Tribuna Preferencia | £35 – £65 | Longside viewing at a sensible price | The east side, facing the main stand. The pragmatic choice for a first visit |
| Tribuna Principal lateral | £50 – £90 | Main stand comfort without the central premium | Angled towards one end, with the same cover as the central blocks |
| Tribuna Principal central and hospitality | £70 – £250+ | Comfort, cover and guests | The halfway line in the west stand, rising to the club's premium packages |
Prices reflect typical resale ranges and may change as demand and availability shift closer to the match.
Mendizorrotza opened on 27 April 1924 and has been added to rather than rebuilt, which gives it a character most modern grounds have lost. It is a single-tier bowl with four stands and filled corners, the corner sections having been added in the late 1990s to lift capacity to its current 19,840. A redevelopment to around 28,000 has been drawn up and then postponed, so what you are buying into is still the old ground. Anyone comparing sectors before buying can work from the Mendizorrotza seating plan, and other matches at the ground are listed on the Mendizorrotza Stadium listing.
| Area | What It Suits | Pricing Bracket | Guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fondo Sur | The committed core of the support | Lower | Home to the club's most vocal groups, with constant chanting and banners. Expect to stand for long spells |
| Fondo Norte | A quieter end at a similar price | Lower | Behind the opposite goal and the calmer of the two ends. Also where visiting sections are placed |
| Tribuna Preferencia | Longside viewing without premium pricing | Mid | The east flank facing the main stand. Clean view of both penalty areas |
| Corner sections | Getting in when the main blocks have gone | Lower to mid | Added in the late 1990s to fill the bowl. Close to the pitch with an angled view |
| Tribuna Principal | Comfort, cover and the clearest sightline | Upper | The west stand, holding the premium seating and the club facilities |
| Visiting sections | Malaga supporters on the allocation | Fixed by allocation | Placed within the Fondo Norte end, with the size set per fixture. Visiting colours belong there and nowhere else |
Two things matter more here than the sector map suggests. Because the ground is small and single-tier, even the lowest-priced seats are close to the pitch, so the price difference buys comfort and cover rather than a materially better view. And Vitoria-Gasteiz sits at around 500 metres above sea level in the Basque interior, which makes a late-October evening genuinely cold. If the fixture lands in an evening slot, the covered main stand is worth the premium.
The premium offering at Mendizorrotza is modest in scale, as it is at most grounds of this size. It is concentrated in the Tribuna Principal on the west side. What it lacks in variety it makes up for in proximity, since nothing at this stadium is far from the pitch.
| Hospitality Option | Typical Buyer | Main Appeal |
|---|---|---|
| Premium seating, Tribuna Principal | Couples and small groups upgrading | Central covered seating on the halfway line with access to the club's indoor areas |
| Club lounge packages | Local businesses entertaining guests | A seat plus catering before the match and at half time, without a full dining commitment |
| Corporate and group bookings | Larger parties booking together | Blocks of premium seating arranged as one reservation rather than individual tickets |
| Matchday experiences | Visitors making a trip of it | Packages that pair a premium seat with stadium access outside the 90 minutes |
The practical value here is shelter and warmth rather than catering. Vitoria-Gasteiz in late October is not the Costa del Sol, and a covered central seat with somewhere indoors to stand before kickoff changes the evening more than it would at a stadium in the south. For anyone travelling from abroad specifically for this match, that reliability is usually worth the difference.
Read what each listing actually contains before comparing prices. Catering, drinks, entrance arrangements and indoor access vary between packages, and two listings at similar prices can deliver very different afternoons. Where a listing is vague, treat it as a premium seat rather than a full hospitality package.
Spanish ticketing has moved largely digital and Alaves sell through their own platform. Resale listings reflect a mix of formats, so read the delivery note and any name conditions together rather than treating them as separate questions.
| Delivery Type | What to Check |
|---|---|
| Digital ticket with QR code | That you have saved it offline before travelling, and which gate the ticket specifies |
| Mobile ticket in a wallet app | Whether it transfers into your own details or arrives as a single-use code tied to one device |
| Printed ticket by post | Dispatch date against your travel date. If you leave before it arrives, ask about redirection to your accommodation |
| Collection near the ground | The collection window, the meeting point and what identification you need. Allow extra time |
Three things travel with you whichever format applies. Bring photo identification matching the booking name, since Spanish grounds increasingly check it. Charge your phone fully, because tickets that block screenshots only scan live. Note the gate printed on your ticket, as Mendizorrotza admits by designated access rather than letting you walk round the outside to another entrance. Bag rules are strict and large bags are not admitted.
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Step1
Open the fixture listing
Confirm Sunday 25 October 2026 and Mendizorrotza before going further, and check whether a kickoff time has been published yet. Alaves have 19 home league fixtures this season and the listings sit close together.
Step2
Set up your account
You can create an account in under a minute. Doing it first saves time at checkout and keeps your order history together if you are buying for a group.
Step3
Filter by quantity first
Set the number of seats before anything else. Listings that cannot be split to your group size drop away immediately, which stops you chasing a price that was never available to you.
Step4
Decide covered or uncovered
At a small ground in the Basque interior in late October this matters more than the sightline. The Tribuna Principal is the sheltered side; the ends are the atmosphere and the lower price.
Step5
Read the listing notes
Restricted view, seats not together, the designated gate and the name the ticket is issued in all sit in the listing detail rather than the headline.
Step6
Check the full price
Go to checkout and look at the final figure including fees and delivery. Headline prices are not comparable across listings once delivery methods differ.
Step7
Complete the purchase
Pay through the secure checkout and keep the confirmation email. It carries your reference number, the delivery method and the timeline for receiving your seats.
Step8
Follow your order through
Use track order to watch progress from confirmation to delivery. If you are travelling to Vitoria-Gasteiz, check the status before you set off rather than after you arrive.
Overseas buyers should prioritise digital delivery and treat the kickoff time as the main unknown. Vitoria-Gasteiz is reachable through Bilbao airport (roughly an hour away by road) and by rail from Madrid and the Basque coast. The city is compact enough that the stadium is a walk from the centre. What you cannot plan around yet is the slot, which La Liga will confirm a few weeks out and which can move a Sunday fixture by most of a day. Book flexible travel until it is published.
One further practical note for anyone weighing a trip. Because the kickoff slot is still open, a Sunday fixture here could finish in mid-afternoon or close to 23:00 local. That difference decides whether an onward connection to Bilbao or Madrid the same night is realistic, so it is the one variable worth waiting on before committing.
Cost is the other reason this trip is worth considering. Face values at Mendizorrotza start well below what the Spanish giants charge, the city is inexpensive by comparison with Madrid or Barcelona, and a small ground means even a mid-range seat puts you close to the pitch.
Build the day around a small city rather than a big one. Vitoria-Gasteiz is the Basque Country's administrative capital and handles a matchday crowd of under 20,000 without strain, so the logistics that dominate a trip to Madrid or Barcelona barely apply. Mendizorrotza sits in a residential district south of the old town, walkable in around 20 minutes. The surrounding streets fill in the hour before kickoff rather than all afternoon.
There is no rivalry here and the geography makes that inevitable. Vitoria-Gasteiz and Malaga are at opposite ends of Spain, and the clubs have only ever met when their very different trajectories happened to intersect in the same division. What the fixture has instead is one of the most consistent statistical patterns you will find anywhere in Spanish football.
They have played seven La Liga matches at Mendizorrotza, spread across four separate spells since 1999. Not one of those seven has been decided by more than a single goal. Six finished with a one-goal margin and the seventh was drawn. Alaves have won four and Malaga two, with an aggregate score across 27 years of 9-7. For a fixture with no history of animosity, it has produced a remarkable record of matches that refuse to break open.
What makes an afternoon here distinctive is the ground and the setting rather than the contest. Mendizorrotza is a genuinely old stadium that has been extended rather than replaced, in a small Basque city that most visitors reach for other reasons entirely. Set against the scale and expense of the Spanish giants, it is one of the more approachable away days in the league. The price of getting in reflects that.
All figures below cover La Liga meetings at Mendizorrotza with Alaves as hosts, from the clubs' first top-flight meeting in 1999 to the present. Reverse fixtures in Malaga, the clubs' second-division meetings and cup ties sit outside the scope.
| Metric | Total |
|---|---|
| Matches played | 7 |
| Alaves wins | 4 |
| Malaga wins | 2 |
| Draws | 1 |
| Alaves goals | 9 |
| Malaga goals | 7 |
| Biggest Alaves win | 3-2 |
| Biggest Malaga win | 1-2 |
| First La Liga meeting in scope | 29 August 1999 |
| Most recent meeting in scope | 21 December 2017 |
No match in this scope has been won by more than one goal, which is why the two biggest wins above are both single-goal margins. Figures are calculated from the match-by-match record below.
| Date | Score |
|---|---|
| 21 Dec 2017 | 1-0 |
| 16 Oct 2016 | 1-1 |
| 12 Feb 2006 | 3-2 |
| 20 Apr 2003 | 0-1 |
| 03 Oct 2001 | 1-0 |
| 22 Apr 2001 | 1-2 |
| 29 Aug 1999 | 2-1 |
Scores are shown with Alaves first. Every result verified against two independent match databases, with dates cross-checked where aggregator records disagreed.
It has not been set. La Liga confirms kickoff times a few weeks ahead rather than with the fixture list, and slots on a Sunday range from early afternoon to 21:00 local. Treat any fixed time you see before then as provisional.
Yes. Alaves put single-match seats on sale for every home fixture, and this is not one of the Basque derbies where the ground fills on member demand alone.
The Tribuna Principal if the fixture lands in an evening slot, because Vitoria-Gasteiz sits inland at altitude and gets cold. In an afternoon slot the ends offer better value.
Visiting supporters are placed within the Fondo Norte end, with the allocation sized per fixture. Those colours should stay in that section, since segregation at Spanish grounds is enforced.
On foot in around 20 minutes from the old town, since the ground sits in a residential district just south of the centre. Bilbao airport is roughly an hour away by road.
Sources: FBref and statarea head-to-head databases, which agree on all fourteen La Liga meetings between the clubs, cross-checked against AiScore for the modern fixtures and La Preferente for the 2000/01 match; the official LALIGA club calendar, which shows this fixture without a confirmed kick-off time at the time of writing; Gasteiz Hoy for the confirmed matchday and date; Wikipedia and Stadium Seeker for Mendizorrotza's capacity, opening date, stand names and supporter sections; Noticias de Alava for the 2026/27 season ticket pricing; LALIGA for the confirmation of Malaga's promotion through the play-offs.