Mamdani makes 1,000 World Cup tickets available for $50 each via lottery

Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on May 21, 2026

Published in Soccer

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NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that 1,000 FIFA World Cup tickets will be made available to New Yorkers for just $50 each — the lowest price on offer for the tournament.

The tickets, to be doled out through a lottery system, will be spread over seven matches in the tournament, and will also come with free bus rides to and from MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, the mayor said. Tickets currently available are upwards of $1,000.

“I said we had to make it cheaper for New Yorkers to attend these matches, and today I’m so proud to stand here … to make it clear we are doing exactly that,” Mamdani said at a press conference in Harlem announcing the affordable tickets.

The lottery, which is open specifically to New York City residents, will open May 25 at 10 a.m. at regnyctix.com. Winners will get two tickets, “for you and a family member, or a friend, whomever you want to go with,” Mamdani said.

The initiative was brought about through City Hall and the NY/NJ World Cup host committee. FIFA, which has faced much criticism over its ticket-selling operations and use of dynamic pricing, had to sign off on it.

The mayor said he spoke with FIFA president Gianni Infantino about the discounted tickets. The two sat down at City Hall in March.

“I’ve shared both publicly and privately my belief that the World Cup needs to be something that is affordable for working-class New Yorkers and working-class people in general,” Mamdani said, regarding that meeting. “And I appreciate the work of FIFA and the host committee in ensuring that we are able to realize that.”

Mamdani, a lifelong soccer fan, who spoke fondly of his own experience attending World Cup matches in 2010 in South Africa, previously took issue with the pricey tickets while on the campaign trail, launching a petition against FIFA to end dynamic pricing and put a cap on resale prices.

Transit is also being marked up during the tournament, with round-trip train tickets from Penn Station to the stadium marked at $98, down from an initial $150, but still far higher than the usual $13. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last week she’d be using state cash to bring round-trip bus fares for the World Cup games down from $80 to $20.

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