The BBL will return to Christmas Eve in the 2026-27 season while the final will be hosted on Australia Day after two years without a match on January 26, a date with significant cultural sensitivities.
Melbourne Renegades will host Hobart Hurricanes on Christmas Eve at the Junction Oval. It will be one of three games to be played at Cricket Victoria's bespoke venue after Renegades ended their association with Marvel Stadium in Docklands. They also won't play again games at GMHBA Stadium in Geelong and will instead play two home games at the Junction Oval, two home games at the MCG and one away game against Melbourne Stars and one game in Chennai to open the season against Perth Scorchers on December 12.
Stars will also play one home game at Junction Oval against Brisbane Heat on December 21 when the MCG is being prepared for the Boxing Day Test. CV will build temporary grandstands at Junction Oval for the matches to provide additional seating with the hopes of raising the capacity towards 6000.
Both Melbourne derbies will be played at the MCG next year, including one that starts at the earlier time of 6.05pm, after the two teams drew 68,000 in their MCG derby last summer.
CA has long considered adding a Christmas Day BBL match into the schedule but it remains clear as approval is still needed from the Australian Cricketers' Association and the clubs.
Approval is not needed to play on Australia Day, which had long been synonymous with Australian cricket, but no fixtures have been played in the last two years, although CA has previously said they were not deliberately avoiding the date.
CA has locked in the final on January 26 to avoid a clash with the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy runs from January 21 to 25 and will be guided by its Indigenous advisory group about how to approach the game.
There are three matches in Canberra with Sydney Thunder to host two, including against Stars who will no longer host games in the capital, and Sydney Sixers who have moved a home game from Coffs Harbour.
Hurricanes will host one game in Launceston following the redevelopment work at the ground with four others in Hobart.
There are no BBL games on December 13 and 14 after the opener in Chennai before the second game of the season on December 15. The extra time gives Scorchers and Renegades eight and ten days respectively to return from India ahead of their second matches.
There will be six double-headers including two games each on Boxing Day and New Years Day as well as back-to-back double-headers on the final weekend of the home and away season on January 16 and 17.
The finals will be begin on January 19 but will not feature any of Australia's Test players who look set to miss almost the entire season due to a four-Test series against New Zealand running from December 9 until January 8 before the team travels to India ahead of a five-Test tour that starts on January 21.