Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, a historic arena seating about 9,100 and famed for hosting presidents and the Indiana high school tournament that inspired Hoosiers, will host the Emirates NBA Cup final this season.

The NBA is moving the Cup final to a storied college venue to emphasize the tournament’s significance on the league calendar, with an emphasis on iconic sites beyond Las Vegas.

Commissioner Adam Silver has advocated for placing the final in historic college arenas, aligning with Hinkle Fieldhouse as the season’s title game site.

The move marks a relocation from Las Vegas, where the Cup previously culminated, and information is current as of June 30, 2026.

Round-robin group play runs from late October to late November, with each team playing the other four in its group once.

The six group winners plus one wild-card team from each conference advance to an eight-team single-elimination knockout round.

Semifinals for the in-season tournament will be held at home sites, a departure from the Las Vegas format of previous years.

Past NBA Cup winners include the Lakers (2023), Bucks (2024), and Knicks (2025), with the 2026-27 final continuing the in-season format toward the NBA Finals.

Last year’s NBA Cup champion was the Knicks, who beat the Spurs in the final; New York later won its first NBA championship in 53 years by defeating the Spurs again.

The league has announced six groups for the 2026 Emirates NBA Cup, with five teams per group split by conference and seeded into three tiers based on last season’s standings.

Additional details, including the full schedule, are available in the NBA release and the group-by-group away/home matrix PDF.

The Emirates NBA Cup 2026 Championship will be played at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse on December 11, with the final streamed exclusively on Prime Video, marking the first Cup final hosted outside Las Vegas.