Soccer fans who purchased tickets for the advertised Fan Fest ahead of the World Cup may be calling foul.<\/p>\n
In a rather shocking move for tri-state soccer fans, the fan fest initially scheduled to take place at Liberty State Park in Jersey City during the 2026 World Cup, has been canceled, a source familiar with the matter tells NBC New York and sister station Telemundo 47.<\/p>\n
Instead, the state is allocating $5million to support community initiatives for fans. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Jersey City venue is no longer being utilized,” a spokesperson for the governor said in a statement. “Instead, Gov. Sherrill is creating a program to bring the excitement of the World Cup to communities throughout New Jersey. <\/p>\n
The initiative,\u00a0a partnership between New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) and the FIFA World Cup 26 New York New Jersey Host Committee, will bring fan experiences to communities across the state “while investing in small businesses, cultural associations, and community nonprofits.”<\/p>\n
“New Jersey is the beating heart of the 2026 World Cup, and this initiative makes sure that every New Jerseyan \u2014 no matter where they live \u2014 can be part of this once-in-a-generation moment,\u201d\u00a0Sherrill said in a statement.\u00a0\u201cFrom fan zones to neighborhood watch parties to street fairs, we are investing in the communities and small businesses that make New Jersey extraordinary. The World Cup is coming to our state \u2014 and we are going to make sure it belongs to New Jerseyans first.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the state, the initiative will prioritize supporting fan events that “are high-impact,\u00a0beneficial to small businesses, and reflective of the rich and diverse cultures that will be represented by competing World Cup nations \u2014 many of which have deep roots in communities across New Jersey.”<\/p>\n
Initially, the plan, announced roughly a year ago, <\/a>was for the fan fest at Liberty State Park to be open for all 104 games of the\u00a02026 World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fan fests with large video screens have been a part of each World Cup’s organization since 2006.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is going to be the one fan fest, I believe, across the country that is going to be up and running for all games of the World Cup as opposed to just the games that are happening in our region,\u201d Tammy Murphy, wife of of then New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and chair of the New York\/New Jersey host committee\u2019s directors, said previously at the time the fan fest was announced.<\/p>\n The World Cup will be\u00a0co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The tournament,\u00a0expanded to 48 nations<\/a>\u00a0from 32, opens June 11 in Mexico City and the\u00a0final will be July 19 at East Rutherford, New Jersey<\/a>. Games will be played at\u00a011 U.S. venues, three in Mexico and two in Canada<\/a>, with all matches in the U.S. from the quarterfinals on.<\/p>\n Tickets already purchased for the Liberty State Park Fan Fest will be refunded, a source tells NBC New York and Telemundo 47.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer fans who purchased tickets for the advertised Fan Fest ahead of the World Cup may be calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5805,12541,11487,1066,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-138994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-jersey-city","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}