New York City residents will have a chance to secure affordable World Cup tickets after a deal struck by the mayor with the FIFA boss.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani negotiated a deal with FIFA president Gianni Infantino for 1,000 tickets priced at only $50 for games played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
The tickets will be distributed through a lottery for local residents and will be split across five group stage matches, a Round of 32 game and a Round of 16 game. The winners will also receive free round-trip bus tickets to the stadium.
“We know that ticket prices for this tournament have soared into the thousands of dollars. There are countless New Yorkers who are desperate to attend the World Cup matches but who simply cannot afford to go,” Mamdani said at a press conference on Thursday.
“Last year, I said I would change that. I said we had to make it cheaper for New Yorkers to attend these matches, and today, I’m proud to stand here alongside so many leaders in our city and in our region to make it clear that we are doing exactly that. We are making sure that working people will not be priced out of the game that they helped create.”
In order to prevent scalping, these tickets are non-transferable and will be presented to the lottery winners in person at the bus terminal before the matches.
The lottery process opens at 10 a.m. ET on Monday. Residents may enter once per day over a six-day period. Daily entries will be capped at 50,000. Verification of residence is required. Winners will be notified on June 3 and will then have 48 hours to purchase up to two tickets.
The 48-team 2026 FIFA World Cup begins on June 11 and runs through July 19, co-hosted by the United States with Canada and Mexico.
The average price for the cheapest tickets available on resale markets for World Cup group stage matches is more than $550, per the analytics firm TicketData. The cheapest available ticket for the July 19 championship match at MetLife Stadium was more than $7,700.
–Field Level Media
