Buy Sassuolo vs Parma tickets for the 2026/27 season, and you are buying into the Emilian derby at the Mapei Stadium - Città del Tricolore on Sunday 20 December 2026, with kickoff listed for 16:00 local time. Serie A confirms exact broadcast slots for mid-season rounds closer to the date, so treat the time as scheduled rather than locked. Under thirty kilometres of the Via Emilia separate Reggio Emilia from Parma, which is why this fixture never plays like a routine mid-table afternoon.
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The ground itself is part of the appeal. Sassuolo play in a compact, football-specific arena of roughly 21,500 seats with four stands pushed tight to the pitch and no running track between supporters and the action. In a stadium that size, a visiting following of four thousand is close to a fifth of the crowd. You hear every one of them.
December adds its own pressure. This is round sixteen, the last home date before the winter block of fixtures. A result against a neighbour carries weight into the new year for both squads, so demand behaves accordingly.
Reggio Emilia is an easy trip for Parma supporters. A short run down the autostrada or twenty minutes on the regional train puts several thousand crociati in the away end without anyone booking a hotel, which is exactly why the Tribuna Nord allocation of four thousand moves faster for this fixture than it does for a visitor travelling from Sicily or Sardinia.
Sassuolo have also shown they will open extra room when a visiting club sells out. For recent high-demand fixtures the club released additional blocks in the Tribuna Est Laterale Nord for away buyers once the designated sector had gone. That is discretionary rather than guaranteed, but it tells you how the ground responds when a travelling support outgrows its allocation.
Timing sharpens it further. A 16:00 Sunday slot in the week before Christmas suits a supporter driving in from Parma far better than it suits one flying in, so the local share of the crowd rises while the discretionary share falls away. That is the combination that tightens a compact ground: more committed buyers chasing the same fixed number of seats.
Then there is the home side of the equation. The Tribuna Sud is locked to Sassuolo Card holders who signed up before the summer deadline. The season ticket campaign for 2026/27 ran from early July through to the end of September, so by the time a December derby arrives, the seats with the clearest view of the away end have been spoken for since the height of summer.
Through the club's own channels, only partly. The Tribuna Sud is reserved for Sassuolo Card holders who subscribed by the June cut-off. Season ticket renewals take first refusal on seats during a priority window before general sale opens. Buyers without a card are pushed towards whatever remains in the Est and Ovest stands.
The away sector is stricter still. Serie A clubs routinely restrict visiting allocations to fidelity card holders of the travelling club, often with a residency condition attached. Sales close the evening before the match, with no matchday purchases permitted at the ground. A neutral fan, a family visiting the region or an overseas supporter who decided late will not clear those conditions.
It is worth understanding how the club's own sale actually runs, because the sequence explains the shortage. Tickets go live through the club's ticketing site, the club store in Sassuolo, authorised retail outlets across the region and finally the stadium box office on matchday, which opens a set period before kickoff. Each stage releases what the previous stage did not take, so by the final window the remaining inventory is scattered single seats rather than pairs in a decent block.
There are conditions attached at the margins too. Under-14 reduced tickets bought online have to be paired with a full-price adult ticket; reduced rates for other categories are handled in person rather than on the website; very young children are admitted without an assigned seat when accompanied by an adult. None of that is unusual for Serie A, but it does mean a group with mixed ages cannot simply add five seats to a basket and check out.
That gap is what the resale market exists to fill. 1BoxOffice lists seats released by season ticket holders who cannot attend the December fixture, by corporate seat holders and by supporters whose plans changed, which means inventory keeps appearing after the club's own allocations have closed. You choose the stand, you see the price before you commit, you do not need a card issued months ago.
Five things move the number on a Serie A resale listing. Seat location comes first, since the difference between a corner in the Sud and a central seat in the Ovest is a different afternoon entirely. After that: how hard the visiting support is chasing seats, where the fixture sits in the calendar, the competitive stakes attached to it and whether hospitality is bundled in. A pre-Christmas derby with a nearby opponent pulls on four of the five at once.
It helps to know what the seats cost the people selling them. A 2026/27 season ticket in the Tribuna Sud runs from roughly £155 to £180 across the full campaign, while the Tribuna Ovest Superiore sits closer to £640 to £670. Spread across a full season of home league matches, that is a very low effective cost per game, which is exactly why season ticket holders hold on to their seats and why the handful released for a derby carry a premium over the box office rate.
Single-match sales through the club's own channels span a wide band depending on opponent and stand, from around £9 at the lower-priced end of the Sud to roughly £150 for well-placed main stand seats. Resale listings sit above that floor because they reflect what buyers who missed the club window are prepared to pay, not what the club set months earlier.
For the 2026/27 Season, resale listings for this fixture have opened from around £88. The bands below show where the rest of the ground typically sits.
| Ticket Type | Resale Price Range | Best For | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tribuna Sud and corner positions | £88 – £115 | Buyers who want the lowest entry price into the ground | The vocal home end. Club sales here are card-restricted, so resale is often the only route in |
| Tribuna Est Laterale (longside standard) | £105 – £155 | A clean side-on view without paying central premiums | Also the stand used when extra away blocks are released |
| Tribuna Est Centrale (lower, central) | £145 – £215 | Supporters who want the halfway line on a sensible budget | The strongest value bracket in the ground for sightlines against price |
| Tribuna Ovest (premium seating) | £190 – £300+ | Comfort, covered seating and the main stand view | Upper and lower tiers price separately, with the upper carrying the premium |
| Hospitality and VIP | £300 – £550+ | Business guests or a matchday built around food and service | Lounge access and box seating. Limited inventory, sells out earliest |
Prices reflect typical resale ranges and may change as demand and availability shift closer to the match.
The Mapei divides into four named stands rather than numbered tiers, so the decision is simpler here than at a bowl ground. The Mapei Stadium seating plan shows how the Ovest, Est, Sud and Nord sit relative to the pitch.
If you are building a trip around more than one match, the wider Mapei Stadium listings cover the ground's other fixtures. Reggiana share the venue, so always check the club name on a listing before you buy.
| Area | What It Suits | Pricing Bracket | Guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tribuna Ovest Superiore | The elevated main stand view across the whole pitch | Highest | Best for reading the shape of the game. Covered, with the steepest rake in the ground |
| Tribuna Ovest Inferiore | Close-up main stand seating with VIP facilities nearby | High | Around 5,100 seats across the Ovest. Lower rows sit almost level with the touchline |
| Tribuna Est Centrale | Halfway-line viewing at a mid-market price | Medium to high | The Est holds roughly 6,570 seats and is the largest stand. Central blocks go first |
| Tribuna Est Laterale | Side-on seating nearer the corners | Medium | Good availability late. The northern blocks are sometimes reassigned to visiting buyers |
| Tribuna Sud | The home end, flags, drums and standing-style support | Lowest | Around 5,000 places. Club sales are Sassuolo Card only, so plan on resale for access |
| Tribuna Nord (away sector) | Parma supporters behind the goal | Low to medium | Roughly 4,000 places. Park at the adjacent I Petali lot. Parma colours belong here and nowhere else in the ground, since visiting colours are not admitted to home sections at Italian grounds |
If you are neutral, or travelling with a mixed group, the Tribuna Est is the sensible default. It keeps you clear of both partisan ends, gives you the fullest view of the pitch for the money and carries no card conditions attached to it. Families with younger children tend to land in the same stand for the same reasons.
December changes the calculation slightly. Reggio Emilia sits in the Po valley, where late afternoon fog and damp cold are ordinary for the time of year, so cover matters more in round sixteen than it would in April. The Ovest and Est offer the most sheltered seating in the ground, while the two ends catch more of the weather.
One practical note on the ground itself: the pitch was relaid with natural turf for the 2025/26 season, replacing the synthetic surface that had drawn complaints from visiting sides for years. It plays a cleaner game, which matters for anyone paying for a central seat with a full view of both boxes.
Sassuolo run hospitality out of two lounges and a bank of boxes along the main stand, all of it refurbished across recent seasons alongside the press and media facilities. Inventory is small by Serie A standards, which is the point: a 21,500-seat ground cannot flood the market with corporate seats the way a 75,000-seat one can.
| Hospitality Option | Typical Buyer | Main Appeal |
|---|---|---|
| Mapei Lounge | Corporate guests hosting clients | Pre-match and half-time catering with a padded main stand seat |
| Sassuolo Lounge | Smaller business groups or a milestone occasion | A quieter room with service, close to the Ovest seating |
| VIP boxes | Companies wanting a private space for the afternoon | 32 boxes seating roughly 192 in total, so exclusivity is genuine rather than nominal |
| VIP stand seating | Supporters upgrading from a standard main stand seat | Around 515 seats in the central Ovest with the shortest access routes |
The trade-off is timing. Hospitality for a derby tends to be committed long before the general bowl fills, so buyers who wait for a late release usually find the lounges gone and only premium seating left. If the catering matters more than the price, buy early in the window rather than late.
Worth knowing for planning: the stadium runs an access programme aimed at reducing barriers between stands and pitch, with dedicated accessible parking and around fifty reserved spaces. Wheelchair positions with companion seating are available, though they are allocated in limited numbers and should be arranged well ahead of a fixture of this profile.
Italian football runs on named tickets. The name on the ticket must match the identity document you carry. That applies to resale purchases just as it does to a club sale, so give the exact details of the person attending when you order.
| Delivery Type | What to Check |
|---|---|
| Mobile ticket | The listing will state the app or wallet used. Keep your phone charged and screenshots will not scan at the turnstile |
| Electronic ticket (PDF) | Print it if you can. Some Italian turnstiles read a printed barcode more reliably than a phone screen in winter light |
| Local collection | Check the collection point, the window it opens and what identification you must bring with you |
| Courier delivery | Confirm the address can receive a signed parcel before the match, particularly for orders shipped abroad |
Read the listing notes before you pay, since they carry the delivery method, seat detail and any conditions the seller has attached. Bring valid photo identification to the ground every time. Charge your phone before you travel if your seats arrive as mobile entry, because the Mapei turnstiles scan at the gate rather than at a manned desk.
1BoxOffice has operated as a verified marketplace since 2006, with every order carrying a 150% money-back guarantee.
Step1
Open the fixture listing
Go to the December derby listing and check the date and venue line before anything else. The Mapei hosts more than one club, so confirm you are on the right fixture.
Step2
Set up your account
You can browse without one, but you will need to create an account to complete a purchase and to keep the order details in one place afterwards.
Step3
Filter by stand and budget
Narrow the listings to the Ovest, Est, Sud or Nord depending on which end you want. Setting a price ceiling first saves scrolling through brackets you are not buying in.
Step4
Set the quantity before you compare
Availability changes with group size. Pairs are plentiful, blocks of four or more in the same row are not, so choose the number first and then compare what is left.
Step5
Read the listing notes in full
Delivery method, restricted view flags, seats-together confirmation and any age conditions all live here. Two listings at the same price are rarely the same product.
Step6
Enter attendee details exactly
Give the full name as it appears on the identity document each person will carry to the ground. Italian named-ticket rules are enforced at the turnstile, not waived at it.
Step7
Complete the secure checkout
Confirm the stand, quantity, delivery method and total before you authorise payment. Your confirmation email is the record of everything you agreed to.
Step8
Follow the order to delivery
Use track order to watch the status through to delivery. Check in again in the week before the match in case the kickoff slot moves.
Reggio Emilia is one of the easier Serie A trips to reach from abroad. The AV Mediopadana high-speed station sits on the Milan to Bologna line a short ride from the ground, Bologna airport is around an hour away by road and the central station connects to the stadium on the number five bus route. If you are shipping physical tickets internationally, allow time for a signed delivery. If that window is tight, pick a mobile or collection listing instead.
Driving is straightforward if you are coming from elsewhere in Italy. Leave the A1 at the Reggio Emilia exit and follow signs for the Moncasale district, where roughly five thousand parking spaces are spread across half a dozen lots. The I Petali lot sits next to the ground, Ex Braglia is a little over a kilometre away and the Fiera lot is nearer two and a half. Around fifty accessible spaces are reserved close to the entrances.
Two further points for overseas buyers. Seats-together requests should be made before you pay rather than after, because sellers list seats in fixed blocks and a group cannot always be reassembled once an order is placed. Build a little slack into flights too: a December round is scheduled across Saturday and Sunday slots confirmed nearer the date, so a fixture pencilled in for Sunday afternoon can settle on a different hour.
Supporters making the trip from outside Italy often pair the weekend with a second fixture nearby. Bologna is under an hour down the same motorway, which makes a two-match trip realistic without changing hotels.
The Emilian derby is a regional argument rather than an ancient blood feud, which is precisely what gives it its shape. Parma carry the weight of a club that won European trophies in the nineties, collapsed into bankruptcy in 2015, restarted in the fourth tier and climbed back to Serie A. Sassuolo are the opposite story: a village club with no top-flight history at all until 2013, backed by a tile manufacturer, playing their home matches in a stadium in a different city to the one on their badge.
Those two stories have met at the Mapei since Sassuolo's first Serie A season. Parma spoiled the opening visit, Sassuolo answered with the heaviest scoreline the fixture has produced here, then the pattern settled into something stubborn. Between 2019 and 2026 the home side did not win a single Serie A meeting on this pitch, a run of four matches that turned an ordinary regional fixture into a genuine bogey tie. The return meeting at the Stadio Ennio Tardini in late February gives the loser a route back, which is part of why December matters to both sets of supporters.
What makes the fixture distinctive is how little separates the two sides on the scoreboard and how much separates them in identity. Six league meetings here have produced eleven goals between them, three draws and only one result decided by more than a single goal. That is a derby that stays alive to the final whistle, which is exactly the kind buyers want to be inside rather than watching.
All figures below cover Serie A meetings at the Mapei Stadium - Città del Tricolore with Sassuolo as hosts.
| Metric | Total |
|---|---|
| Matches played | 6 |
| Sassuolo wins | 1 |
| Parma wins | 2 |
| Draws | 3 |
| Sassuolo goals | 6 |
| Parma goals | 5 |
| Biggest Sassuolo win | 4-1 |
| Biggest Parma win | 1-0 |
| First Serie A meeting in scope | 2 March 2014 |
| Most recent meeting in scope | 3 January 2026 |
Totals calculated from the verified match-by-match record below, cross-checked against Italian match reports and league records.
| Date | Score |
|---|---|
| 03 Jan 2026 | 1-1 |
| 17 Jan 2021 | 1-1 |
| 16 Feb 2020 | 0-1 |
| 14 Apr 2019 | 0-0 |
| 15 Mar 2015 | 4-1 |
| 02 Mar 2014 | 0-1 |
Scores listed Sassuolo first. Every result cross-checked against at least two independent match reports.
Only for the Tribuna Sud, which the club restricts to cardholders who signed up before the summer deadline. Resale listings cover the rest of the ground with no card required.
Hospitality and central seating are worth securing as early as you can. Standard seating often softens in the fortnight after the kickoff slot is confirmed, when travel plans change.
Visiting supporters are housed in the Tribuna Nord behind the goal. Colours of the visiting club are not permitted in home sections at Italian grounds, so wear neutral clothing anywhere else.
Yes. Italian league tickets are issued in the attendee's name and checked against photo identification on entry, so enter each person's details exactly when you order.
Often, though the Est stand offers the widest choice for groups. Set the quantity before comparing listings, because seats sold in fixed blocks cannot be rearranged after checkout.
Sources: official U.S. Sassuolo Calcio ticketing and Mapei Stadium facility pages for sector layout, capacity, season ticket structure and away-sector conditions; Lega Serie A for fixture scheduling and competition records; Parma Calcio 1913 match reports; and Italian match reporting from ANSA, Sportmediaset, TUTTOmercatoWEB, Il Resto del Carlino, Eurosport, Sportface, Reggio 2000 and Sassuolonews for verified results and attendance figures.