Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani announced on Monday a lottery for 1,000 affordable tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2026 for New Yorkers, a program that pairs $50 seats with free round-trip bus transportation to MetLife Stadium. The entry window opens on Monday, May 25 at 10 a.m. at and closes Saturday, May 30 at midnight.
New Yorkers who are 15 and older may enter once per day, with the lottery capped at 50,000 entries daily. Winners, chosen randomly and notified on Wednesday, June 3, may buy up to two tickets each. The program covers five group stage matches and two knockout round matches, with roughly 150 tickets available per game. Each winner will receive tickets directly at the official boarding location on match day, along with free round-trip bus travel to the stadium.
Mamdani unveiled the program in Little Senegal alongside the NYNJ Host Committee, framing it as an effort to make sure working people are not priced out of a tournament set to land in their own region. “A World Cup is coming to our backyard, and we want to ensure working-class New Yorkers have the opportunity to be part of it,” he said. He added that the city had “sat down with the Host Committee to make certain this tournament belongs to the people who make this city what it is.”
The announcement turns a public promise into a specific offer: a low-cost ticket pool, limited transit, and a lottery designed to widen access while keeping demand in check. The structure also reflects months of collaboration between the Mamdani administration and the host committee, which pushed for affordability and access as the tournament moves toward MetLife Stadium in 2026. Tickets are nontransferable, a safeguard meant to prevent scalping and keep the seats in the hands of the winners.
That anti-scalping rule is the sharpest sign that the city is trying to control not just who gets in, but how the tickets move after they are awarded. Winners will not receive tickets until the day of the match, and they will be distributed directly at the boarding location, making the process tighter than a standard public sale. Maya Handa said the program exists because the mayor was determined to make sure working New Yorkers would be in the stands when the World Cup comes home to New York, while Alex Lasry said the host committee had pushed from the start for a plan centered on affordability and access.
Mamdani said, “Today, 1,000 New Yorkers are going to get into those stands for fifty dollars and a free bus ride. I’m proud that New York City is leading the way.” For residents who want a shot at those seats, the next step is simple and immediate: enter the lottery, once a day, before it closes at midnight on May 30.
