New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is aiming to make the upcoming FIFA World Cup accessible to the everyday fan, as ticket prices on resale sites continue to soar.
As of Thursday, the cheapest ticket available on FIFA's official resale site in the U.S. for the opening game at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium between Brazil and Morocco was listed at $1,236.25.
On Thursday, as Mamdani briefed New Yorkers on preparations for the tournament, which is set to kick off in Mexico City on June 11 and end in New Jersey on July 19, during which he revealed that the local organizing committee is making 1,000 gameday tickets available to New Yorkers for a fixed price - all while taking a sneaky dig at Philadelphia.
New Jersey's MetLife Stadium is set to host eight FIFA World Cup games this June/July -Credit:Leonardo MUNOZ / AFP via Getty Images
Noting how "ticket prices for this tournament have soared into the thousands of dollars," Mamdani went on to reveal, "I said we had to make it cheaper for New Yorkers to attend these matches. And today, I am so 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 to create. And that is why we stand together today to say that we have partnered with the New York-New Jersey Host Committee to secure a thousand affordable tickets for New Yorkers to the World Cup."
"These 1,000 tickets are going to be split into batches of 150 tickets for each of the five group stage matches, and two knockout round matches in New York-New Jersey, and tickets will cost only $50. To put that into perspective, that is five lattes in New York City.
"And since it is not just ticket costs that make this tournament unaffordable, but the cost of travel as well, we will be providing free round-trip bus transportation to MetLife for those who get a ticket."
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Mamdani added that an individual's chance of winning tickets would not be down to "who you know," with the committee set to utilize a lottery system which will begin on Monday, May 25 at 10am ET. Only New Yorkers will be able to enter, and can only do so once daily, with the total number of daily entrants limited to 50,000. The lottery will last "a few days."
The 34-year-old then took his opportunity to take a playful swipe at fans from Philadelphia after the New York Knicks recently swept the 76ers in the Eastern Conference semi finals, saying, "Now, I know that Philly fans may try to crash this lottery and get revenge for the home games that the Knicks won, but New York is actually a sports town and we are giving our tickets to sports fans.
"So, we will verify eligibility using a variety of methods to make sure that only New Yorkers are purchasing these tickets.
"We want to open the tournament to working people who couldn't otherwise afford it, not to scalpers. That's why we're making tickets non-transferable and will dispense them directly to winners at the bus boarding location."
