New York City residents who have been priced out of the 2026 World Cup now have a genuine shot at getting inside MetLife Stadium. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Thursday a lottery programme offering 1,000 tickets at $50 each — including bus transportation to and from the stadium — for seven games at the New Jersey venue. It is the first time any 2026 World Cup host city has created a dedicated affordable access programme for its own residents.
Mamdani unveiled the initiative in the Little Senegal neighbourhood of Harlem, accompanied by community leaders and US men’s national team winger Tim Weah, a native New Yorker. The lottery covers every game at MetLife Stadium except the final, with approximately 150 tickets available per game in the upper bowl of the 82,000-capacity venue.
The eligible games are five group stage matches — Brazil vs Morocco on June 13th, France vs Senegal on June 16th, Norway vs Senegal on June 22nd, Ecuador vs Germany on June 25th, and Panama vs England on June 27th — plus a Round of 32 match on June 30th and a Round of 16 match on July 5th.
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How to Enter — and Why It Matters
The lottery opens on May 25th at 10am Eastern Time and closes on May 30th at 5pm ET. A maximum of 50,000 entries will be accepted daily. Winners can purchase up to two tickets each. The programme is a collaboration between the mayor’s office and the NY/NJ World Cup host committee — not FIFA, which retains control over official ticket operations and has used dynamic pricing throughout the tournament’s build-up.
That distinction matters. Ticket pricing has become one of the most contentious issues surrounding this World Cup. FIFA initially set $60 as the cheapest available ticket for any game, but dynamic pricing has pushed costs into the hundreds for virtually every match at MetLife Stadium. Transportation has compounded the problem. New Jersey Transit initially announced a round-trip train fare of $150 between Penn Station and MetLife Stadium — against a usual fare of $13 — before reducing it to $105 under public pressure. Bus tickets between New York City and the stadium are expected to cost $80 per trip.
FIFA previously released a limited allocation of $60 tickets in response to criticism, representing approximately 1.6% of total available inventory. For the vast majority of New York residents who love football, that was not nearly enough.
Mamdani, a committed football fan who made affordability a central theme of his mayoral campaign, has been vocal about his frustration with FIFA’s approach for months. “There’s just no chance for so many who love this game so much to actually be able to go and see this,” he said at a campaign stop last September. He argued that dynamic pricing systematically rewards those motivated by profit over those genuinely eager to attend — and that the atmosphere of the tournament suffers as a result.
The $50 lottery programme will not solve the broader pricing problem. But for the 1,000 New Yorkers who win a draw, it removes every barrier between them and one of the greatest sporting events on the planet.
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