NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) – New York City will offer its residents a chance to snag $50 tickets to World Cup games in New Jersey this summer, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Thursday, with 1,000 affordable tickets up for grabs through a lottery system.
The discounted tickets come with free round-trip bus transportation to the stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey and will be split across five group-stage and two knockout games, with 150 tickets available per match.
“We are making sure that working people will not be priced out of the game that they helped to create,” Mamdani told a press conference in the city’s Harlem neighbourhood, quipping that the $50 price tag was the equivalent of five coffees in New York City.
Starting on May 25, residents will be able to enter a lottery for a chance to purchase the tickets, which will be non-transferable and distributed to winners at the bus boarding location in an effort to prevent scalping.
Ticket affordability has been a key issue for the tournament being co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
According to TicketData, a ticket price tracking platform, the average “get-in” cost for a group-stage match in New York as of Wednesday was $864. Some resale tickets are listed for thousands of dollars across various platforms, including FIFA’s official resale and exchange marketplace.
The best seats for the final on July 19 in New Jersey were put on sale for nearly $33,000.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino defended high World Cup ticket prices this month.
“This is the moment to make sure that everybody is included, that everybody is lifted up,” said New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam.
Winners of the lottery will be able to purchase up to two tickets each.
(Reporting by Christine Kiernan; Writing by Nicole Fernandes in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)
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