With 104 World Cup matches scheduled across 16 North American cities over 39 days, New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium will host the final near Midtown Manhattan—an event expected to pull more than 80,000 people to a site with thin transit connections. NJ Transit’s f
Nine miles outside Midtown Manhattan, on a site best known for the New York Giants and New York Jets, MetLife Stadium is preparing for the World Cup final—and the scramble for getting there is already spilling into day-to-day life in New York and New Jersey.
The final is set for the NYNJ Stadium in FIFA’s phrasing. with the league calling the venue by that name to avoid airtime for stadium sponsors. MetLife’s capacity is listed as 82. 500 seats for football and soccer matches. and the scale of the crowd has forced public transportation planning to move fast. For host cities, the plan has not just been about rail schedules. It has turned into a fight over who pays. who rides. and who gets stuck when trains and streets get crowded.
NJ Transit. preparing for an influx riders tied to eight matches at MetLife. rolled out measures that many commuters reacted to with anger. On April 17, NJ Transit announced round-trip tickets to the stadium from New York Penn Station would cost $150. The usual price for that trip is described as $12.90—an increase of more than 1,000%.
That pricing wasn’t the only change. New York Penn Station will shut down all other outbound New Jersey trains beginning four hours before each of the eight matches being hosted at MetLife. NJ Transit also offered limited relief through a 3% discount for monthly tickets and a 5% discount for weekly tickets. and encouraged commuters to work from home.
Officials also discouraged driving for the matches, with no general parking. The only nearby FIFA-endorsed parking listed in the reporting is at the adjacent American Dream Mall. at a cost of $225 per day. Usual stadium parking is said to start at $65. Rideshares have been discouraged as well, with the stated aim of avoiding road congestion and price surges.
After ticket prices were announced, private sponsors stepped in to subsidize costs, bringing the $150 fare down to $98. Even at $98, the increase is described as nearly 660% higher than typical prices. A shuttle bus that originally cost $80 was lowered to $20, framed as the most affordable option for attendees.
The pressure is not isolated to New Jersey. Boston has increased transit pricing for the event, with a round-trip train costing $80 and a shuttle listed at $95. In some cities. fans have resorted to hiring private busing for their groups. even as fears have grown about illegal vans and taxis taking advantage of spectators amid rising public transit fares.
Economist Andrew Zimbalist. who studies international sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics. argues that the economics of hosting often don’t work out for cities in the long run. Zimbalist pointed to a key structural mismatch: in his view. FIFA does not allow host cities to keep the money generated by the event. “FIFA keeps all the television money. FIFA keeps all the international sponsorship money. FIFA keeps all the advertising money from signage within the stadium. ” he said.
For Zimbalist, the cost shows up in both direct and indirect ways. There is the risk that hosting can change local behavior in a way that makes some tourism disappear. “They don’t wanna be around when there’s gonna be a lot of congestion. ” Zimbalist said. describing how visitors may avoid places during the heightened security and crowding that major events bring. “Then the question is whether the new tourism that’s coming in for the games is greater or less than the tourism that’s not gonna come that otherwise would’ve come.”.
That tension plays out here too. Many attendees are expected to stay in New York City and participate in fan festivals, turning what might have been normal weekend movement into a pressure test for the region’s rail lines and roadways.
The argument over whether FIFA should subsidize transportation costs has become central. The record shows that when New Jersey signed on to host the final in 2018. the state agreed to provide free transit accommodations to spectators. But in 2023. the contracts were amended. with the reported change spelling out that “match ticket holders and accredited individuals shall be able to access transport at cost.”.
NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill—described as having inherited the deal from her predecessor, Gov. Phil Murphy. both Democrats—said the public transportation for the matches would cost the state $48 million and that the state received no subsidization from FIFA. Sherrill also tied the higher fare environment to operational needs: dispatching more trains and adding security measures including personnel and surveillance equipment.
FIFA, in turn, argued that no other organizers are expected to subsidize attendee transportation. In a statement carried in the report. a FIFA spokesperson said they “applaud” host city partners providing low cost or unchanged rates for mass transit to and from match venues. fan festival locations. airports and other areas. The spokesperson also cited Houston as an example, saying light rail tickets there cost $1.25 one-way ($2.50 round trip). FIFA added that it has worked with host committees and partners on a transportation plan meant to minimize congestion. reduce reliance on private vehicles. and keep the fan experience focused on the “action on pitch.”.
Even as those explanations have landed. Sherrill has framed the fare spike as a boundary that the state refuses to cross. She said the increased cost for ticket holders is meant as a protective measure so the expense is not spread across all commuters and New Jersey taxpayers. Still, she called on FIFA to pay instead of leaving the burden to the public. “I’m not going to stick New Jersey commuters with that tab for years to come. ” Sherrill said in a statement. “FIFA should pay for the rides. But if they don’t – I’m not going to let New Jersey get taken for one.”.
By midstream, frustration has turned into a secondary storyline: some fans have talked about walking. After the transportation costs were announced, corners of the internet lit up with a unique strategy—walking to MetLife. The reporting notes that officials have warned against the idea. and that getting there on foot is not advised because of heavy car traffic from Interstate Highway 95 and marshland surrounding the arena.
Various reporters and citizens are described as attempting the multi-hour trek from New York Penn Station to MetLife on foot. Most concluded it was technically possible but crowded with roadblocks—literal and figurative—and that it did not make for a safe plan. Sidewalk closures. fence hopping. and rerouting were common for these experimental walkers. who reportedly ended up saying it wasn’t a good approach.
What’s been floated online doesn’t always translate into action. Even some hypothetical proponents were said to admit they wouldn’t actually do it, and some were not even planning to attend the matches.
Still, the debate has opened a broader discussion about the region’s walkability and pedestrian access to stadium infrastructure. Rachel Weinberger, vice president at the Regional Plan Association, called the conversation revealing. “I’m not advocating for it. but it would. it would be an interesting political statement if a lot of people said. ‘You know what?. Let’s walk, and we’ll see what happens,’” Weinberger said. “It’ll basically illustrate. if we don’t already realize it. that walkability has been sort of a very forgotten stepchild of all of our transportation planning and building over the years.”.
Weinberger’s organization. the Regional Plan Association. is described as a nonprofit civic group focused on urban planning for the New York metropolitan area. The group advocates for the Gateway Program. a multi-pronged plan intended to improve transit between New York Penn Station and New Jersey. The largest portion—improving and expanding the Hudson Tunnel—is already underway and is described as the biggest infrastructure project in the country.
The report also lists the Bergen Loop as another element of the Gateway Program. intended to directly connect Penn Station to more NJ Transit lines instead of requiring a transfer at Secaucus Junction. It’s described as nowhere close to fruition, with the Hudson Tunnel project and other components taking priority. The reporting adds that it is unlikely to be created within the next decade, if at all.
That matters for World Cup ticket holders because the transit design problem—requiring a transfer one stop out from New York City—is said to affect nearly everyone coming from Penn Station. The reporting describes that fans will be forced to transfer at Secaucus Junction, then arrive at the Meadowlands stadium stop. It also notes that typical rush hour congestion can already create borderline unsafe conditions for boarding and exiting at stations like Penn Station and Secaucus. with lines running over capacity.
For everyday commuters, the transfer may be tolerable. For a mass event, the report suggests it can become dangerous when overcrowding risk peaks. Yet Weinberger argues the region did not use the time available to build permanent infrastructure for a surge. “Many cities would leverage a world event like this to build permanent infrastructure. and we got a very late start on it. ” she said. She tied that delay partly to FIFA’s process but also to the time when the region might have prepared. “I mean. partly we got later notice than most cities because of all of FIFA’s own shenanigans. but when the region put in the bid to host the games that would’ve been a time for us to have had at least a conceptual plan of how we might leverage. ” Weinberger said.
She pointed to metro area examples that could have been adapted, including the 34th Street Busway in New York City and the addition of express bus lanes on New Jersey highways.
But now, she says, the region is stuck in a scramble. “New Jersey might have asked, ‘Can we do a better connection?. Can we really focus on a one-seat ride that makes sense from Penn Station to the Meadowlands?’” Weinberger said. “But we sort of missed that moment. and so now here we are kind of in a scramble for how we’re gonna make all of this work.”.
Whether that scramble will keep fans safe. and whether the region will later see the World Cup as a missed opportunity or a worthwhile investment. is still very much unresolved. The stakes are not only about the seven minutes of a match, or even the 39 days of competition across 16 cities. They’re about the days before the first whistle—about whether a crowded rail platform becomes a bottleneck. about whether families end up paying more than they expected. and about whether New Jersey and New York can handle the scale of 82. 500-seat nights without turning public transit into an emergency.
And with some spectators still arguing about walking as an act of defiance, another question hangs over the Meadowlands: will enough people try to make the journey on foot to turn the debate into a real test of whether the surrounding urban design can actually carry the weight of a World Cup crowd?
World Cup MetLife Stadium NJ Transit New York Penn Station Mikie Sherrill Phil Murphy FIFA transportation costs public transit Secaucus Junction walkability
So basically everyone’s gonna be late because of a soccer game. Cool cool.
I saw “thin transit connections” and was like yep, that tracks. They should just run more trains instead of fighting about who pays. But knowing NJ Transit they’ll blame NY anyway.