Steelers in Paris! Saints at the Stade! Steelers-Saints en France: It’s happening!
The Saints and Steelers matching up in Paris is huge news if you love one of these teams, or the NFL, or Paris, or a combination of the three. The Saints were a natural choice for the NFL’s first game in Paris, as Louisiana is home to a sizable francophone community. And the Steelers in Paris is an inspired match, a legendary NFL franchise with a worldwide audience.
Here’s what you need to know, whether you’re looking for on-sale dates for Saints and Steelers in Paris tickets, wondering where to stay, or details about packages. And if you’re a Steelers or Saints fan with questions about Paris, email me, I would be happy to address them, as a professional travel writer, part-time Parisian, and lifelong football fan*.
On to the game!
When is the Saints-Steelers game in Paris?
October 25th, 2026. (It’s a Sunday.)
When will tickets go on sale?
June 2, for the Amex presale for General Admission and Hospitality Packages, 10am CEST — note that is 4 a.m. Pittsburgh time and 3 a.m. New Orleans time. You’ll need to pay with an American Express card and can purchase up to 6 tickets. See more details here.
Non-presale on-sale date to come.
How do you get tickets for the Steelers-Saints in Paris?
No one knows re: single tickets, except for whomever’s tasked with figuring it out at NFL HQ. Sign up here: nfl.com/paris for details and ticket updates.
That said: Steelers fans can now purchase packages through On Location ranging from $1295 (basically ticket only with some events) to $7495 $7770 (ticket + air + hotel). (A third package includes hotel but not air travel, for $5070.) Note that price (recently hiked) is per person, double occupancy — solo travelers will need to pay $9720.
Curiously, the Saints are offering three similar packages, but none include airfare. These range from $1295 to $4945.
Single tickets are rumored to cost around $200-$250. Will update this as soon as news is available.
France has a very different (read: less expensive) event ticket culture — witness my $140 ticket to see Taylor Swift in Lyon — but the NFL sets the prices across the international games (nine this season), so there you go.
Are the Steelers in Paris packages a good deal?
How much is convenience worth?
Clearly quite a bit: In the three days that have passed since this post was originally written, the Steelers Paris packages including airfare and hotel are nearly sold out (5 left). For travelers wanting as much convenience as possible, it makes sense, and there are some neat activities along the way, like “Official Steelers Pre-Game Hospitality” (on Saturday) and and an “Exclusive Paris Event” (wow that is really specific). Generally packages are bad value and hard to recommend, but in a situation like this, traveling with the community is half the experience. Go get that Steelers Paris package if the budget allows!
That said: If you’re looking to economize, or travel more independently, you have a many, and many cheaper, options.
On Location shares the exact flights they’re taking to get to Paris — and those flights are currently pricing out at $2096 (for economy) — no doubt because of the high travel volume on those flights related to their promotion. But it would be easy to spend around half that — there’s a very decent flight from PIT to CDG on United (connecting in Chicago) for just over $1000 leaving a day earlier and returning a day later.
Side note: Airfares to Europe are incredibly volatile right now — buoyed by higher fuel costs but depressed by lower volume from European travelers. In October, from EWR (so a cheaper fare than from PIT) I’d normally expect $700 RT on United. It’s hard to predict right now if $1000 represents a good deal or a bad one.
So that’s 1000 of your dollars. The air/land Steelers in Paris package offers transfers from the airport and four nights of hotel stays, plus a four-day Navigo card, which can be used throughout the safe, fast, and reliable Paris métro and bus system. A one-way ticket from CDG to the city is €14 and a 4-day Navigo card is probably unnecessary — Paris is small, and you can walk everywhere. Airbnbs can be surprisingly cheap and some neighborhoods are considerably less expensive than others. Real budget travelers can book into somewhere like the Generator Hostel.
Let’s say you’re traveling solo and want to do the whole thing as inexpensively as possible: That’s $1000 for airfare, $35 to get back and forth from the airport, and four nights in a dorm bed (read: a shared room) at Generator at $52 a night — that’s just $1247! Let’s add on $250 for the ticket, bringing the whole stay (minus food) to $1493, or about $6000 cheaper than the full experience. Less fun? Maybe. But maybe not, if you prefer a solo trip or are going with your own crew.
Where should Steelers fans stay in Paris?
Come for the whole week! Not just the four nights offered by the package! Paris is the best and October is perfect — usually not that expensive, usually not that cold, and usually not that crowded. It’s ideal.
Steelers fans who want to maintain a certain level of daily experience with bridges over rivers should stay on the Ile St Louis and cross onto the Left or Right Bank every morning. Or maybe you can’t live without bravely marching up and down many hills! For you, consider Montmartre (the “mont” gives it away) or — less crowded, but also somewhat less iconic — the Butte-aux-Cailles, one of the most village-y feeling neighborhoods in the whole city.
If you are looking to ease your journey to the Stade de France for the game on Sunday, you could stay within walking distance of the RER B stations (including the Gare du Nord, Les Halles, St-Michel) — but honestly it’s so easy to get there that I wouldn’t make that too big a factor.
The Stade de France is north of Paris — between the airport and the city center — but again Paris is extremely small. Staying in one of Paris’s northern neighborhoods will cut your travel time to the stadium but not in a significant way.
Maybe you’re looking for a Steelers bar in Paris?
Tragically there is not one per se (yet anyway, Instagram is awash with pitches for “Le Jagoff” (what??)), and hopefully if you’re a Steelers fan in Paris, you’re actually going to the game. But for televised NFL games in Paris in general, everybody’s at The Moose on the Left Bank. It’s Canadian (read: moose) but they play most of the NFL games that air during opening hours. For more details, see their website — the TV schedule is shown at the bottom of the homepage.
What about the stadium?
The Stade de France is the largest stadium in France, with more than 80,000 seats. They are well accustomed to big crowds and high-security events (as this will surely be). It is easily accessible by RER, which is Paris’s suburban commuter line.
Is Paris safe?
Paris is very safe. You need to take the same precautions as in any big city. I would perhaps not walk to the Stade de France — or at least I would not walk back after the game. And Paris does have a (deserved) reputation as a hotbed for pickpockets and the like, as well as snatch-and-grab apartment break-ins, especially during the vacation season in August. But people coming to the Steelers-Saints game in Paris in October will have, I would guess, very few problems. Be smart, zip up your bags on the metro, don’t leave things behind. But also don’t worry.
What should I do to blend in?
An important topic, especially for us Americans. For sure wear your jerseys — Parisians love sports, and I bet the vibe will be very cool on the street. But fanny packs: non! Athleisure everywhere: non! (I do this lol, literally all the time — but it will get you looks.) It’s a dressier, more stylish and more conservative (mind you a very specific definition of “conservative”) culture than ours, and you will receive better service and less judgment if you dress the part a little.
Most of all: Anywhere but the stadium, we need to use our indoor voices. Indoor voices!!
* #ALLEZLESOISEAUX POUR TOUJOURS
