Principality Stadium
for boxing:
where to sit

The stadium that hosts the fight

The Principality Stadium stands right in the centre of Cardiff, on the bank of the River Taff, a few minutes' walk from the main shopping streets. It opened on 26 June 1999 with a rugby test between Wales and South Africa and was called the Millennium Stadium for almost seventeen years; it has carried its current name since January 2016 under a deal with the Principality Building Society. It is the national stadium of Welsh rugby, holds 73,931 for matches, and has a retractable roof, a rarity at a venue of this size.

For boxing the roof changes a great deal. With it closed, the stadium stops being an open bowl and sounds like a giant arena: the noise does not escape upwards, and the roar of the stands comes back down to the ring. That is how Anthony Joshua fought Carlos Takam on 28 October 2017, in front of 78,000 people, more than the stadium holds for rugby. On 31 March 2018 Joshua drew 78,000 here again for his fight with Joseph Parker. Before him, Joe Calzaghe boxed at the stadium: his fight with Mikkel Kessler on 3 November 2007 was watched by 50,150.

How the stadium is set up for boxing

For rugby the whole middle of the stadium is grass. For boxing the ring goes in the centre of the pitch, and the pitch is covered with decking and filled with seats. That is where the extra thousands above rugby capacity come from: fans sit not only in the stands but on the pitch itself. The grass here sits on 7,412 movable pallets, so the stadium is used to being rebuilt like this.

Around the ring the layout spreads out in rings of its own. Right by the ropes are the front rows, the closest seats to the fighters anywhere in the stadium. Behind them come the outer ringside blocks along each side of the ring. Then the floor: seats on the pitch that run all the way to the front rows of the stands, getting cheaper the further the row is from the ring. Above the pitch rise three tiers of stands, and they make up most of the stadium: for rugby the lower tier holds 23,154, the middle 15,626 and the upper 35,151, almost half the venue.

Four stands and the gap in the north

The stands at the Principality are named by the points of the compass. The pitch runs north to south, so the West and East stands are the long ones, running along the pitch, while the North and South stands sit at the ends. For boxing this is the key difference. The ring is square and looks the same from every side, but the pitch is a rectangle, and the centre is noticeably closer from a longside stand than from an end. That is why longside seats cost more on the same tier, and it is not a formality but distance.

The North Stand is built differently from the rest. It is the surviving part of the old National Stadium at Cardiff Arms Park, which stood here before the Millennium, and it has two tiers instead of three. The money to rebuild it was never found, and the bowl was left with a break in the north that Cardiff calls Glanmor's Gap. The South, West and East stands have three tiers each.

Three tiers: lower, middle and upper

The lower tier starts right behind the pitch, and its central sections on the longside stands put the ring straight ahead and slightly below you. This is the best view from the stands: high enough that the heads on the floor do not block the ring, close enough that you still see fighters rather than figures. The end sections of the lower tier are further from the ring and cost less.

The middle tier is the smallest of the three; from its height the whole ring is visible from above, but the fighters look noticeably smaller. The stadium also has plenty of hospitality: 124 suites and seven lounges. The upper tier is the largest and the steepest. From here the ring looks small and the fight is watched on the big screens, but you see the entire arena at once: the lights over the ring, the ring walks across the stadium, 78,000 people under one roof. For many, that is exactly why they travel to a stadium fight rather than an arena one.

Where the fight reads best

In boxing, unlike football, closeness decides almost everything. At a football match height lets you read the game; at a boxing stadium height only lets you read the scale of the night. A punch, a feint, the footwork are visible from the front rows, and from the top of the stadium you see them on a screen. So the first question is not which tier but what you want from the evening.

In our experience it works out like this. If you want to see the fight itself, hear the punches and the corner, take Outer Ringside or the Ringside VIP rows; nothing is closer. If you want the balance of price and view, take Prime View, the centre of the lower tier on a longside stand: the whole ring with no heads in front of you, for noticeably less than the floor. The back of the floor is deceptive at a stadium this size: it sits level with the ring, with several dozen rows between you and the ropes. We suggest it to those who want to be on the pitch, in the thick of the night, rather than follow every round. The upper tier is for the atmosphere and the full picture.

How our categories map onto the stadium

We work with categories and rows rather than individual seats, and at the Principality there are seven. Ringside VIP is the first twelve rows around the ropes. Outer Ringside is the blocks right behind them. Floor Seats are on the pitch, split into front, middle and back rows. Prime View is the central sections of the lower ring on the longside stands. Then the Lower Tier, the Middle Tier and the Upper Tier, and on the last two the longside costs more than the shortside. The seating plan with the category colours is on the fight page.

How ringside differs from the stands at combat sports is covered, using UFC as the example, in our guide to UFC Ringside seats: the logic is the same, only with a ring instead of the Octagon.

Why we confirm the category, not the seat

The promoter releases the seating for stadium fights closer to the date, and the floor is built from scratch for every fight. So two months out nobody can honestly name your row and seat on the floor. We confirm the category at booking, and for Ringside VIP the group of rows as well; the exact row and seat are fixed when the promoter releases the seating. A seller who names a floor seat number in advance is promising something they do not yet know themselves. What else to check before you pay is collected in our guide on how to check a ticket reseller.

How to choose a seat at the Principality

• To see the fight, not the screen: Ringside VIP or Outer Ringside.
• The best view from the stands at a sensible price: Prime View, the centre of the lower tier on the West or East stand.
• To be on the pitch, in the thick of the night: the floor, and the closer to the ring the better.
• An evening with guests or a business meeting: the Ringside VIP rows, with the same people around you all night.
• Atmosphere and scale at a calm price: the upper tier on a longside stand, the whole arena in front of you.

The next fight at the Principality: Anthony Joshua v Tyson Fury, 11 December 2026. The page has the seating plan in its boxing layout, all seven categories and today's prices. Name the category and the number of guests, and your personal manager will confirm what is open for that date.