New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced a lottery programme offering 1,000 World Cup tickets at $50 each to residents of the five boroughs. The tickets, which include bus transport, are for all matches at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey except the final.
The scheme covers seven games: five group matches (Brazil v Morocco, France v Senegal, Norway v Senegal, Ecuador v Germany, Panama v England), plus a Round of 32 and a Round of 16 fixture. Each game has a block of about 150 tickets in the upper bowl of the 82,000-capacity stadium.
The lottery opens on 25 May at 10am ET and closes on 30 May at 5pm ET, with a maximum of 50,000 daily entries. Winners can purchase up to two non-transferable tickets, distributed on match days.
Mayor Mamdani, a football fan who prioritised affordability in his campaign, criticised Fifa's dynamic pricing. '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 last year.
The initiative is a collaboration between the mayor's office and the NY/NJ World Cup host committee, not Fifa. It marks the first time a host city has provided special ticket access for its residents, echoing Qatar's discounted tickets for the 2022 tournament.
