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New York City residents can now enter a lottery for the chance to purchase $50 tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Winners will also get free round-trip bus transportation to MetLife Stadium. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced last Thursday that the city government, in partnership with the NY/NJ Host Committee, had secured 1,000 reduced-price tickets across seven matches—five group stage games and two knockout round matches, but not the final—with approximately 150 tickets allocated per game.
According to The Athletic, Mamdani, a self-described lifelong soccer fan, reportedly raised the issue directly with FIFA president Gianni Infantino in March at New York City Hall. During this meeting, the Mayor was also introduced via FaceTime to Arsène Wenger, the former manager of Arsenal who now serves FIFA’s chief of global development. Mamdani has frequently shared that his favorite team since childhood is the Premier League’s Arsenal.
The lottery opens online at regnyctix.com today at 10 a.m. and closes Saturday, May 30 at midnight. New York City residents aged 15 and older may enter once per day, with a daily cap of 50,000 entries. Winners will be notified on Wednesday, June 3, and they can purchase up to two tickets each. Tickets will be non-transferable and distributed directly to winners at an official boarding location on the day of each match to prevent scalping.
The announcement comes against a backdrop of widespread condemnation over the cost of attending the tournament. FIFA has sustained overwhelming backlash for its ticketing strategy, which priced group stage matches based on the perceived popularity of the teams involved rather than a flat rate, a departure from recent tournaments. Soccer’s governing body recently tripled the price of its best available seats for the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium, pushing a single ticket to $32,970. FIFA also takes a 30% fee—split evenly between buyer and seller—on each resale transaction through its official platform. (Exorbitant ticket prices also have drawn similar fury in the 2026 World Cup’s other two co-hosting nations, Canada and Mexico.)
Transportation to MetLife Stadium has faced separate criticism. New Jersey Transit, which operates train service to the sporting arena, initially announced round-trip fares of $150 per person for World Cup match days, more than triple its standard pricing. That has since come down to $98 after the state of New Jersey said it had secured additional sponsorship funding to offset the costs.
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.