Mayor Mamdani announces $50 World Cup tickets will be available for NYC residents through lottery
A limited number of affordable tickets to the FIFA World Cup will be available for New Yorkers through a lottery.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said a partnership with the New York/New Jersey Host Committee secured 1,000 tickets for city residents. They will cost $50, and winners will also get free round-trip bus tickets.
"To put that in perspective, that's five lattes in New York," Mamdani joked.
A big talking point for many New York soccer fans has been the price of tickets.
"We want to open the tournament to working people who couldn't otherwise afford it," Mamdani said.
World Cup ticket lottery details
The lottery will open at 10 a.m. Monday. Residents can enter once a day over the course of six days. Entries will be capped at 50,000 per day, Mamdani said.
"These are 1,000 tickets. They will be split into batches of 150. Those 150 will be for the five group games and the two knockout rounds in New York, New Jersey," Mamdani said.
The tickets will be evenly distributed among the five boroughs.
Mamdani said they will be verifying eligibility in various ways and are making the tickets non-transferable to deter scalpers.
"Those buying tickets may be asked to verify their identity and residency through official IDs, pay stubs, rental or mortgage agreements, recent utility bills," the lottery website states.
The tickets will be given to the winners in person at the bus terminal before they go to the matches.
The winners will be notified on June 3 by the email used to enter and will have 48 hours to buy up to two tickets.
Fans excited
"We finally get a chance to go see a game. Honestly, that ... it's going to be a dream come true for many people," said soccer fan Petah Joi.
"I think it's huge for New York City. This is something that doesn't happen every year. Everyone is so excited. And just for the mayor to make sure that everyone will be able to attend the games, or have watch parties while being safe, that's huge for us," fan Khady Ndiaye said.
Timothy Weah, a star from the U.S. men's team, was also at the announcement.
"The mayor is doing an excellent job ... access is super important," Weah said. "I mean, as a kid, my dream was to watch the game. I had the opportunity to go, to work up to, you know, it's everyone's game."
Tickets online soar to hundreds of dollars
The Tri-State Area is hosting host eight matches, including the final in July at MetLife Stadium, which is being referred to as New York/New Jersey Stadium.
Tickets on FIFA's official resale marketplace are going for hundreds of dollars. The cheapest tickets on resale markets across all World Cup group stage games were $553, according to the ticket analytics firm TicketData. The cheapest available ticket for the final was $7,734.
Fans also have to dish out money for transportation costs. Round-trip tickets on NJ Transit cost $98 while bus tickets from Manhattan cost $20. These two prices were dropped from the original amounts of $150 and $80, respectively. Mamdani also recently announced the NYC Ferry will have additional service for games.
