New York City residents who have watched World Cup ticket prices climb into the thousands received a surprise Thursday, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a city-subsidized lottery that will offer 1,000 seats for $50 apiece — complete with free bus rides to MetLife Stadium — for all but the tournament’s most expensive match.
Mamdani revealed the plan from a bar in Harlem’s Little Senegal, standing beside U.S. men’s national team forward Timothy Weah, a gesture that tied the city’s immigrant communities to the global tournament. “To put that into perspective, that is five lattes in New York City,” Mamdani said of the $50 price.
The lottery, which opens May 25, will distribute roughly 150 tickets for each of seven World Cup matches at the 82,000-seat MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The high-demand July 19 final is excluded; some resale seats for that game already approach $33,000, making the $50 tickets a dramatic discount.
The city will also provide free roundtrip bus transportation from New York City to the stadium for each ticket holder, a move that further reduces the cost barrier for residents who otherwise would have to pay for transit or parking at the venue across the Hudson River.
Mamdani’s announcement marks the latest effort by a host city to make the tournament accessible to local residents as ticket prices — driven by limited supply and global demand — have soared. The lottery is open only to New York City residents, a restriction that the mayor’s office said is intended to ensure the seats go to locals rather than to brokers or out-of-town buyers.