Ally Pally darts: ballot shuts 14 Sept, Great Hall move

The World Darts Championship returns to Alexandra Palace on Friday 11 December 2026 and runs to Sunday 3 January 2027. If you want to be in the room, the date that matters is not in December. It is Monday 14 September, when the public ballot closes at 11.59pm.

There is no other way in. For the first time in the tournament’s history every ticket is being drawn by ballot rather than sold first come, first served (Alexandra Palace).

The ballot, and the two dates on it

The members’ window has already run. The general one is open now and closes on the Monday. Three rules from the Palace’s own listing are worth reading before you apply.

• One ballot entry per person or member. Not one per session, one per person.
• Entering does not guarantee tickets. The Palace says demand “is expected to exceed available capacity”.
• Tickets may not be available at all afterwards. In its words, tickets “may not be available after the ballot process concludes”.

Everyone who applies is told the outcome by email during September.

Why the room changed

This is the first year the darts is played in the Great Hall. Every previous Ally Pally championship since 2008 was staged in the West Hall, and last winter’s, which Luke Littler won on 3 January, was the last one held there.

The difference is the point of the move. The Great Hall takes over 5,200 spectators against the West Hall’s 3,200, and across the tournament the PDC has put a record 180,000 tickets into the ballot (Sky Sports, 6 August 2026). That is roughly 2,000 more people on the hill for every session, on every one of the 24 days, for a month.

The field is 128 players. There is the usual break from 24 to 27 December, and the tournament runs through New Year’s Eve to the final on the Sunday.

What is not published yet

Two things people ask about, and the honest answer to both is that nobody has published them.

The session times. The Palace’s listing carries a single line, “Doors open 19:00”, which is its default for an evening event and not a schedule for 24 days of darts. The session by session running order is not out. In past years the tournament has split into afternoon and evening sessions on most days, but treat that as the historic pattern rather than a 2026 fact until the PDC publishes the schedule.

The prices. The ballot entry sits behind a virtual queuing system on the PDC’s ticketing site, and no face value is published anywhere outside it. If you search for darts ticket prices you will find figures in the £149 to £198 range on resale, hospitality and package sites. Those are not PDC prices, and the PDC’s own guidance is that its tickets come through the ballot. Treat anything on sale before the ballot has been drawn with suspicion.

Living here for 24 days of it

There are no road closures. Haringey’s outdoor events report to its statutory advisory committees on 18 June 2026 covers the Summer Series, Kaleidoscope, Red Bull Soapbox and the Fireworks Festival, and sets out park closures, road closures and bus diversions for each (Alexandra Palace outdoor events, 18 June 2026). The darts is indoors and is not in it. No temporary traffic order has been made for it, and none was made last year either.

What does change is the crowd on the last mile. Alexandra Palace station sits at the Wood Green gate of the park, on Great Northern’s direct service from Moorgate through Highbury and Islington. Wood Green on the Piccadilly line is the nearest Tube. The W3 runs from Finsbury Park and Tottenham up to the ice rink and Palm Court entrances. All three funnel several thousand people up the same hill twice a day for a month.

Parking costs more at night, and that is the trap

The Palace’s car parks stay open for the darts. Its travel page says only that “our outdoor events typically require us to close our car parks”, and the darts is not an outdoor event.

But the tariff is not the one people remember.

The Paddocks is the overflow car park and it opens “for specific events only”, which is exactly what an evening darts session is. At £5 an hour from 5.30pm, a session that ends near 11pm is a £25 or £30 park. The main car parks charge the same rate “seven days a week, 365 days a year”, including bank holidays and including the days between Christmas and New Year (Alexandra Palace car parking). Blue Badge holders are not charged, but must scan the badge at the machine.

Payment is cashless, through the terminals on site or the ECP parkbuddy app, and you have 24 hours from leaving to pay before a penalty follows. The Palace cannot take card payments for parking over the phone.

If you are thinking of parking on the streets below instead, most of the surrounding area is inside a controlled parking zone, and the Muswell Hill zone runs Monday to Sunday. Our parking in Crouch End page has the zone hours and the tariffs.

What else is on up there at the same time

The darts overlaps with almost everything else the Palace does at Christmas. The ice rink runs alongside it, the theatre has a Christmas run, and the Fireworks and Drone Festival on 7 and 8 November comes first. Our Christmas at Ally Pally page has the skating prices and dates, and Crouch End Christmas shows covers the theatre and Jacksons Lane.

Before you travel on a darts night, check the Crouch End roadworks and travel page: the Palace has already warned that Piccadilly line upgrade work is disrupting services calling at Wood Green, and that strike action has taken the W3 off the road on a number of dates this autumn.

We will update this page when the PDC publishes the session schedule and the ballot results go out in September.

Sources

• Paddy Power World Darts Championship 2026/2027, Alexandra Palace for the 11 December 2026 to 3 January 2027 dates, the Great Hall, the 180,000 tickets, both ballot windows and their exact opening and closing times, the one entry per person rule, the “does not guarantee tickets” warning, the September email notification and the “may not be available after the ballot process concludes” line.
• World Darts Championship: 2026/27 dates confirmed for Alexandra Palace, Sky Sports, 6 August 2026 for the Great Hall holding over 5,200 against the previous 3,200 limit, the 128 player field, the 24 to 27 December break, and Alexandra Palace having hosted the championship since 2007.
• 2026 PDC World Darts Championship, Wikipedia for last winter’s edition running 11 December 2025 to 3 January 2026, being the 19th at Alexandra Palace and the last in the West Hall, and for Luke Littler as champion.
• Alexandra Palace outdoor events report to the Statutory Advisory and Consultative Committees, 18 June 2026 for the list of events that do generate park closures, road closures and bus diversions, which does not include the darts.
• Car parking, Alexandra Palace for the free first 30 minutes, the £2.20 an hour rate, the Paddocks at £5 an hour from 5.30pm to midnight and £2 an hour otherwise, the charges applying 365 days a year, the Blue Badge exemption, the cashless payment and parkbuddy app, and the 24 hour window to pay.
• How to get here, Alexandra Palace for Alexandra Palace station being at the Wood Green entrance with a direct Great Northern service from Moorgate through Highbury and Islington, Wood Green on the Piccadilly line, the W3 from Finsbury Park and Tottenham, the Piccadilly line upgrade disruption, the W3 strike dates, and the statement that outdoor events typically require the car parks to close.