{"id":70453,"date":"2025-12-14T18:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T18:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/70453\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T18:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T18:01:09","slug":"mamdani-vows-to-appoint-world-cup-czar-for-nyc-over-fifa-ticket-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/70453\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani vows to appoint “World Cup czar” for NYC over FIFA ticket prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he will appoint a “World Cup czar” to push FIFA to lower ticket prices for the 2026 tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a democratic socialist and avid soccer fan, has been openly critical of FIFA’s decision to let ticket prices fluctuate<\/a> based on demand, instead of selling them for a flat rate based on seating, like at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n

But as mayor, can he actually do anything about high ticket prices?\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Yes. This is going to be me using my platform to speak up to FIFA at every opportunity,” Mamdani said Sunday on CBS News New York’s “The Point with Marcia Kramer.”<\/p>\n

Fans fear getting priced out<\/p>\n

FIFA’s ticket pricing plan<\/a> for the tournament across the U.S., Mexico and Canada has drawn international outage, as soccer fans\u00a0worry about getting priced out<\/a>, especially with\u00a0eight matches, including the Final,<\/a>\u00a0coming next summer to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The cheapest ticket to the World Cup Final, which will be here in New York City and New Jersey, according to the Croatian Federation, is $4,000,” Mamdani said. “That’s five times more expensive than it was to go to the Final in Qatar.”<\/p>\n

\"kramer-5p-pkg-mamdani-o-wcbsg2sm-hi-res-still-00-01-1807.jpg<\/p>\n

Marcia Kramer interviews NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Dec. 12, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CBS News New York<\/p>\n

The group Football Supports Europe contends it would cost fans nearly $7,000 USD to follow their team from its first match to the Final in 2026. Tickets to the previous Final were priced at $380 for an obstructed view seat to $5,850 for one of the best seats in the stadium,\u00a0according to FIFA<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FIFA is also involved in ticket resales for the upcoming tournament, charging secondary sellers and buyers 15% each.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I want the price to be something that’s affordable. This, you’d have to mortgage your house to be able to afford that for a lot of people. And when it was last in the United States, you could get to the final in California for less than $200. That needs to be what we’re looking for,” Mamdani said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MetLife Stadium matches in high demand<\/p>\n

The first game at MetLife Stadium will be a Group Stage match pitting Brazil, one of the most successful teams in World Cup history, against Morocco on June 13.<\/p>\n

The stadium holds a whopping 82,500 fans for soccer, but demand appears to be very high to start and it’s likely to rise as the stakes get higher later in the tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"World<\/p>\n

MetLife stadium during the Club World Cup semifinal soccer match between Fluminense and Chelsea in East Rutherford, N.J., Tuesday, July 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

Pamela Smith \/ AP<\/p>\n

“I am going to appoint a World Cup czar because, I think at the core of it, I’m so excited at the fact that we are going to be hosting eight games across the World Cup next summer,” Mamdani said. “I also understand why soccer fans feel the way they do. They have a right to.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

FIFA also used a dynamic ticket pricing model for the\u00a0Club World Cup<\/a>\u00a0last summer.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

See the full interview<\/p>\n

Mamdani also discussed\u00a0his views on Israel<\/a>, charter schools,\u00a0the 2026 midterm elections<\/a>,\u00a0his meeting with President Trump<\/a>\u00a0and more.<\/p>\n

To watch the full interview,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he will appoint a “World Cup czar” to push FIFA to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56,14771,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-70453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-world-cup","14":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70453","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=70453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}