NEW YORK — New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Thursday that he negotiated 1,000 tickets from FIFA that will cost residents only $50 each.
These are the cheapest tickets for the entire World Cup distributed through FIFA (not a secondary resale site), and the only cheap-ticket program negotiated by a host region’s government for the 2026 tournament. In past World Cups, FIFA allocated a portion of affordable tickets to local residents.
“There are countless New Yorkers desperate to attend a World Cup match, but who simply cannot afford to go,” Mamdani said Thursday. “We are making sure that working people will not be priced out of the game that they helped to create.”
New York City residents will be randomly selected for up to two upper-bowl seats to one of seven matches, and get a free bus ride to and from the stadium.
New Jersey is hosting eight matches including the tournament final, which is not part of the program jointly run by Mamdani’s administration and the local host committee. Mamdani said Thursday that no taxpayer funding is going toward the ticket program. The tickets are coming from the host committee’s batch of purchased tickets, but the deal still needed FIFA’s approval, The Athletic reported. There will be no income verification or requirement that someone is a soccer fan to qualify, only that they live in New York City.
Mamdani made the announcement Thursday morning in New York City’s Little Senegal neighborhood. Senegal, which will play two group-stage matches in New Jersey, is under a travel ban from the Trump Administration that partially limits visitors including some World Cup fans.
U.S. men’s national team player and Brooklyn native Timothy Weah, who earlier this year said he was “disappointed” with World Cup tickets being “too expensive,” also attended the event Thursday. He said he thinks Mamdani has done “an amazing job with making these tickets accessible to New Yorkers.”
“I think this opportunity is really healthy for the community and for New York in its whole,” Weah said Thursday. “I think as athletes, it’s important to have a voice because we are the pillars of this community. We are the leaders of the next generation.”
USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino reprimanded Weah publicly in January over the ticket comments. “It is not his duty to evaluate the price of the ticket,” he said.
Mamdani, a longtime soccer fan, has criticized FIFA’s ticket prices since before his inauguration in January. His administration has referenced its “active negotiations” with FIFA throughout the spring.
Mamdani played high school soccer in the Bronx, is an Arsenal supporter, and has said he attended the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
While on the campaign trail in September, Mamdani said FIFA should get rid of its dynamic pricing, put a cap on resale prices, and set aside a portion of tickets for local residents. He told Front Office Sports at the time that he had reached out to FIFA and the host committee to “make these demands clear and start that conversation.”
“This is something that I’m very sincere about because it can be the difference between whether or not New Yorkers can actually participate in the World Cup or whether we will just be bystanders to what should be one of the greatest moments in our city’s history,” Mamdani said.
The World Cup matches happening across the river from Manhattan have come to symbolize the high costs for attending the tournament in the U.S. FIFA has listed tickets for the July 19 final on its official platform for as high as $32,970. The NJ Transit train to get to the stadium will cost $98, down from its original $150, while the host committee’s bus service will cost $20, down from $80 after New York gave $6 million in state funding.
FIFA has listed tickets at high prices since sales windows began in the fall. The governing body originally said some tickets would be $60, but after backlash at the limited availability of those tickets, created a $60 supporter tier that would award each federation 500 tickets per match. For U.S. fans, only members of official supporters groups got access to those tickets.
While ticket prices have started to fall on the secondary market, FIFA has largely waited to drop prices, as it did for last year’s Club World Cup.
On Wednesday night, FIFA had tickets available for six of MetLife Stadium’s eight matches. The get-in price for the four available group-stage matches ranged from $1,550 to $2,550, while the round-of-32 match was listed at $2,250, and the round-of-16 match at $3,165. On secondary resale sites, one of those group-stage matches was listed for under $500, while others were under $800.