BNP Paribas Open: Grounds Pass or Stadium Ticket?

There is one thing to get right when buying tickets to the BNP Paribas Open, and most of the guides online now get it wrong.

A grounds pass no longer gets you into Stadium 2. Neither does a Stadium 1 ticket. If you have read otherwise, you read something written before the rule changed.

What a grounds pass actually is

A grounds pass is not a “get inside the gate and stand around” ticket. It is all-day entry to the general admission seating in Stadiums 3 through 9, plus every practice court, plus the food and the shopping and whatever else is going on around the grounds.

That is real match seating on seven courts. In the first week, when both draws are playing full rounds at once, that is most of the tennis at the tournament.

What it does not include: Stadium 1 and Stadium 2.

The Stadium 2 change

Stadium 2 used to have general admission seating. It does not any more. The tournament’s own wording is that all Stadium 2 tickets are now fully reserved, a reserved seat is required for entry, and there will no longer be any general admission seating there.

It then says so explicitly: Stadium 1 tickets and grounds passes do not provide access to Stadium 2.

This matters because Stadium 2 is where a lot of the good early-round matches land. If there is a specific match you want and it is scheduled for Stadium 2, no amount of grounds pass will get you in. You need a Stadium 2 ticket.

It is also the most out-of-date claim circulating about this tournament, so check the date on anything else you read.

What a Stadium 1 ticket gets you

A Stadium 1 session ticket is a reserved seat in the main stadium and general admission access to Stadiums 3 through 9 for the rest of the day.

So a Stadium 1 ticket is a grounds pass with a stadium seat attached — with the single exception of Stadium 2, which is its own thing now.

Stadium 2 tickets work the same way in reverse: a reserved seat there, plus the outer courts.

Stadium 3 is sold as its own ticket type as well. Its first rows are reserved and there is general admission behind them.

So which should you buy

The honest version:

• Grounds pass if you want to watch a lot of tennis, stand close to it, and do not care about being in the big stadium. First week, this is the best value at the tournament.
• Stadium 1 if there is a marquee match, or it is the second week, or you want the experience of the 16,000-seat stadium. You keep the outer courts either way.
• Stadium 2 only if the match you want is scheduled there. You will not know until the evening before.
• Qualifying if you mainly want access and atmosphere for almost nothing. See below.

Because the order of play is not published until the night before, buying a stadium ticket for a specific player is always a gamble. That is worth knowing before you spend.

More: the full BNP Paribas Open guide

The $10 day

Qualifying runs the three days before the main draw. Every ticket on those days is $10, and all the proceeds go to the Champions Volunteer Foundation.

A qualifying ticket is a full day: the matches, the practice courts, the grounds. Same venue, same players warming up, a small fraction of the crowd. For anyone local it is the easiest good decision of the tennis fortnight.

Practice courts are included with everything

Player practices are open to anyone holding any ticket or grounds pass. The twenty practice courts sit on the south side of Stadium 1, and the daily practice schedule goes up on the tournament website each morning and on the information towers by the courts.

This is the part people underrate. On a grounds pass you can watch a top-ten player practise from a few feet away, then walk to an outer court and watch a full match from the front row.

Practical things about the tickets themselves

• Everything is digital. Tickets are managed through AXS and accessed in the tournament app. There is no paper.
• The venue is cashless. Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay. No cash anywhere on the grounds.
• Re-entry is allowed but needs a wristband. Get one at a Guest Services kiosk or at the North, South or East gate before you leave. You need both the wristband and your ticket to get back in.
• Resale runs through AXS. Tickets can be transferred or resold in the app.
• Series packages exist if you want the same seat for every session of the main draw, and they let you resell individual sessions you cannot use.

One caveat

The Stadium 2 rule is the newest thing on this page and the most likely to change again. Prices change every year and are not published as a standing list — the $10 qualifying ticket is the only fixed number the tournament publishes. Check the tournament site before buying anything.

More guides

• The BNP Paribas Open guide
• Indian Wells Tennis Garden
• What to eat at the tournament
• March in Palm Springs
• Happy hours in Indian Wells

Ticket types, prices and stadium policies are set by the tournament and change from year to year. Everything here was checked against the tournament’s own site; confirm before you buy.