New York City residents will soon be able to buy World Cup seats at a steeply reduced price, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, as part of an effort to widen access to the tournament ahead of its U.S. stop. Mamdani announced that 1,000 tickets costing $50 will go to city residents for seven matches at MetLife Stadium, which he described as the home venue across the river from Manhattan.
The mayor said the $50 seats will cover about 150 tickets per game for seven of the eight World Cup matches scheduled at the roughly 82,000-seat stadium. Mamdani said the one exception is the high-demand July 19 final, where some tickets are priced at nearly $33,000.
Mamdani also said the tickets would include free roundtrip bus transportation to MetLife for ticket holders. He said the city will begin distributing the tickets through a lottery starting May 25.
To reduce the risk of scalping, Mamdani said the city would take steps to ensure that the tickets it distributes go to New York City residents and are not resold on the secondary market. He said the $50 tickets will be non-transferrable and that city officials will use “a variety of ways” to verify residency.
According to Mamdani, the tickets will be handed out directly to fans as they board the bus on game day. He said the approach is intended to ensure the cost remains reachable for working people.
Mamdani said the initiative reflects that his administration is not only focused on making everyday costs such as housing and groceries more affordable. He said, “We are making sure that working people will not be priced out of the game that they helped to create,” adding that the effort extends to letting every New Yorker take part in events that he said make people “human.”
During his campaign, Mamdani had called on FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, to set aside 15% of World Cup tickets at discounted prices for residents. He also launched a petition seeking FIFA to reverse a plan to set ticket prices based on demand.
The mayor’s office said the $50 tickets do not come directly from FIFA, but from tickets allotted to New York and New Jersey’s joint host committee for the games. Mamdani said previously FIFA had made some $60 tickets available for every match in North America after backlash over high prices, but those lower-priced seats were allocated to national federations of the teams playing in the games.
Besides the July 19 final, the MetLife Stadium schedule includes five group matches and two knockout-stage games, the mayor said. Matches for soccer nations including Brazil, France, Germany and England begin June 13, according to the announcement.