As soccer fans voice their anger over the cost to attend this year’s FIFA World Cup, NJ Transit has wilted under pressure and slashed its train ticket prices yet again.
Fans already face exorbitant costs to attend games, between expensive hotel rooms, airfare and up to four-figure ticket prices. Yet host cities across the U.S., Mexico and Canada have caused tensions to boil as they raise the price of public transportation tickets well beyond their typical cost.
Officials in New Jersey, where the New York/New Jersey Stadium – usually known as MetLife Stadium – is located, are seemingly trying to help ease that burden. NJ Transit had previously set round-trip tickets at $150 for the roughly 9-mile journey from Penn Station. However, following tremendous backlash, lowered the price to $105, and then to $98 on Tuesday.
The cost of a bus ticket from New York City to the matches also decreased drastically on Tuesday, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announcing the price would go from $80 to $20.
The high cost is clearly impacting fans’ ability to get to matches. The demand for hotel rooms during the World Cup has also fallen short of expectations, in part due to visa barriers and geopolitical concerns keeping people from traveling, according to a study.
President Donald Trump blasted the high cost to attend the World Cup, telling The New York Post earlier this month he was shocked to learn fans were being quoted four-figure prices for some of the cheapest seats in the arenas.
“I did not know that number,” Trump said. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.”
The president isn’t the only one to express outrage over the costly event. While five million tickets have already been sold to the soccer extravaganza, fans have been felt shut out due to the record-high costs.
“Global football still tries to adhere to this idea of a more populist aspiration about the accessibility of the game. That’s basically become a fiction, and this is the corporatization of World Cups on steroids,” Andrés Martinez, a soccer author, told The Hill.
Some have noted similarities to the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022, where the most expensive final ticket was roughly $1,600 at face value. This year, the top-priced ticket for the final match is about $11,000 at its original cost.
Meanwhile, free events will be held across New York City for fans who don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on tickets.
“Every fan should be able to watch the greatest tournament on earth without dipping into their savings,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a noted soccer fan, said.
The criticism has mounted to legal action, with fan group Football Supporters Europe filing a lawsuit with the European Commission in March accusing FIFA of “excessive ticket prices.” FIFA President Gianni Infantino has defended the massive costs, arguing that they reflect how expensive it is to do business in the U.S.
While NJ Transit’s new $98 offering may seem like a sweet deal compared to its original $150 price, a train ticket on any other day to the stadium from Penn Station typically costs about $13.
