Limited parking options at US$225 a space will be available at the stadium for fans with disabilities and in an adjacent mall for other supporters, according to the Just Park site.<\/p>\n
New York resident Guy Dixon, 42, told AFP: \u201cI feel like that\u2019s an embarrassment and shame, and it\u2019s taking advantage of the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trading blame<\/p>\n
New Jersey\u2019s recently sworn-in Governor Mikie Sherrill defended the state transit organisation\u2019s policies, saying on X today that \u201cFifa put zero dollars towards transporting World Cup fans\u201d.<\/p>\n
The deal between Fifa and the previous New Jersey leadership also \u201celiminated parking\u201d at the stadium, requiring the rail service to transport four times as many fans as it usually does, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis agreement will cost NJ TRANSIT at least $48 million, while Fifa is positioned to make $11 billion during the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also wrote on social media on Wednesday, as initial reports emerged in The Athletic, that Fifa should foot the bill for transport costs to World Cup venues.<\/p>\n
But Fifa, which is already facing severe criticism over the sky-high cost of many match ticket prices, called New Jersey\u2019s move \u201cunprecedented\u201d.<\/p>\n
The football world governing body\u2019s World Cup chief operating officer Heimo Schirgi said the move to \u201carbitrarily set elevated prices and demand Fifa absorb these costs is unprecedented\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo other global event, concert or major sporting promoter has faced such a demand. While Fifa is projected to generate approximately $11 billion in revenue, not profit, as the governor incorrectly claims, Fifa has always been a not-for-profit organisation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Fifa said previously that the original host city agreements \u201crequired free transportation for fans to all matches\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, fans could use the Doha Metro for free with their matchday tickets.<\/p>\n
A renegotiation stipulated that transport would be offered \u201cat cost\u201d on match days, Fifa added previously.<\/p>\n
\u2018Insane\u2019<\/p>\n
A French supporter group called the pricing \u201ccompletely insane\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day there\u2019s bad news about transportation \u2013 you really have to wonder how far this madness is going to go,\u201d said Guillaume Aupretre, a spokesman for the \u201cIrresistibles Francais\u201d fan organisation.<\/p>\n
New York Governor Kathy Hochul also took aim at the reported price hike.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharging over $100 for a short train ride sounds awfully high to me,\u201d Hochul wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Some US$100m in US federal funding has been allocated to host cities for transit network costs, including $8.7m for Boston and Massachusetts, and $10.4m for the New York-New Jersey area, according to local media reports.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s Football Supporters\u2019 Association (FSA) chief Thomas Concannon told the BBC \u201cevery single thing coming out of this tournament so far is just fans getting fleeced\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe price is obviously astronomical in terms of what you would expect to pay going to a match,\u201d he said today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t expecting to be gouged.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Limited parking options at US$225 a space will be available at the stadium for fans with disabilities and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[200152,5432,10542,3072,3602,9517,5904,2082,200151,305,25630,33444,440,13085,153468,130,111,139,12909,40603,69,10711,16348,2744,3333,16156,82599,3048,202,213,16674,131,10507,14005,61,1865,52170,11685,200153,1316,1533,377,2173],"class_list":{"0":"post-385907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-200152","9":"tag-between","10":"tag-cup","11":"tag-drawing","12":"tag-earlier","13":"tag-fans","14":"tag-final","15":"tag-for","16":"tag-gouged","17":"tag-have","18":"tag-hosts","19":"tag-insane","20":"tag-local","21":"tag-matches","22":"tag-meadowlands","23":"tag-more","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-normal","27":"tag-ny","28":"tag-nz","29":"tag-officials","30":"tag-outrage","31":"tag-pay","32":"tag-price","33":"tag-quick","34":"tag-roundtrip","35":"tag-said","36":"tag-seven","37":"tag-sports","38":"tag-stadium","39":"tag-than","40":"tag-ticket","41":"tag-times","42":"tag-to","43":"tag-today","44":"tag-tournaments","45":"tag-train","46":"tag-us150","47":"tag-when","48":"tag-will","49":"tag-world","50":"tag-york"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}