The Eden Gardens was half-empty during Kolkata Knight Riders’ recent IPL 2026 clash against Lucknow Super Giants on Thursday. KKR have played three matches this season in Kolkata. Out of the three games, they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad and Lucknow Super Giants. Meanwhile, their game against Punjab Kings was abandoned due to rain.
The lack of home crowd support and poor form have turned this into a disastrous start to the season for KKR. Eden Gardens can accommodate around 68,000 spectators, and it is usually filled whenever KKR play at home.
Also, rain has been a decisive factor. It was raining during the PBKS match, and before the LSG game, it was raining in Kolkata.
Fans react to half-empty Eden Gardens
Reacting to the venue being half-empty, one fan wrote on X, “Mann seriously? Edengardens is almost 40% empty, and not only today in few of previous games as well… I mean what’s the point of winning 3 ipl trophies if your fans can’t even attend home games.”
“We’ve seen franchises like CSK, MI and RCB whose fans are soo passionate, even srh and punjab got huge fanbases, also in the last match we can see a lot of support for DC as well, than what is going wrong for KKR?”
Another fan blamed KKR’s poor form as the reason. The fan wrote, “The reason Eden Gardens is empty for a @KKRiders game is simple. There is not one player in the team to back, and the owners do not care for the franchise.”
Another fan added, “Half empty Eden Gardens. Team struggling to win a game. That is what happens when you have a distant owner with no knowledge of cricket and who has his equally incapable stooge run things for the team. He will go running back to Gautam Gambhir in a year or two.”
One fan wrote, “Empty Eden Gardens tonight during KKR vs LSG (home ground Kolkata) Fact : KKR may have trophies but their Aura 10 times less than PBKS now. Thnk u Venky Mysore for Shreyas Iyer. IPL 2026”.
Another fan wrote, “Everyone is saying that KKR’s poor performance and management are the reason behind the Eden gardens empty stadium; but look CSK ,Csk has been playing poor since last year, but you will never see the Chepauk Stadium is empty”
One fan had a message for BCCI. The fan wrote, “@BCCI @IPL man see the situation Eden gardens empty stands, kindly take IPL all around man. Take to emerging cities, this year no Vizag too, Cuttack, Trivendrum, Pune, Nagpur, Vadodara, Rajkot, Kanpur, Gwalior, Indore. Plenty man. Make them travel. Small towns do pay more!”
During the match, the broadcast cameras showed multiple empty sections of the stadium. This is an unusual situation for KKR, which is used to strong home support.
