NEWARK: World Cup fans will have to pay $150, more than 10 times the normal price, for the quick round-trip train ride between New York and the Meadowlands Stadium when it hosts the tournament’s final and seven previous matches, local officials said Friday, sparking outrage.
The 36-mile (56 km) round-trip trip for visitors to the New Jersey sports complex outside New York City typically costs just $12.90.
“We’re going to charge $150 for our round-trip fare on our system. So New York to MetLife, MetLife back to New York,” said Kris Kolluri, president and CEO of NJ Transit, using another name for the stadium.
Only 40,000 train tickets will be available for the eight games at the stadium, which usually hosts NFL teams the New York Jets and Giants.
But driving will be even more expensive.
Parking options limited to $225 per space will be available at the stadium for fans with disabilities and at an adjacent shopping center for other fans, according to the Just Park site.
Guy Dixon, 42, a New York resident, said AFP “I feel like that’s a disgrace and a disgrace, and it’s taking advantage of the fans.”
commercial guilt
Recently sworn-in New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill defended the state transit organization’s policies, saying Friday that “FIFA did not spend any dollars transporting World Cup fans.”
The deal between FIFA and New Jersey’s former leadership also “eliminated parking” at the stadium, requiring rail service to carry four times as many fans as usual, he said.
“This deal will cost NJ TRANSIT at least $48 million, while FIFA is positioned to earn $11 billion during the World Cup.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also wrote on social media Tuesday, when initial reports emerged in The Athletic, that FIFA should foot the bill for transportation costs to World Cup venues.
But FIFA, already facing severe criticism for the very high cost of tickets for many matches, called New Jersey’s move “unprecedented.”
World soccer’s governing body’s World Cup operations director Heimo Schirgi said the move to “arbitrarily set high prices and require FIFA to absorb these costs is unprecedented.”
“No other major global event, concert or sports promoter has faced such a lawsuit. Although FIFA is expected to generate approximately $11 billion in revenue, not profit, as the governor incorrectly claims, FIFA has always been a non-profit organization,” he added.
FIFA previously said the original agreements with the host city “required free transport for fans to all matches.”
At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, fans will be able to use the Doha Metro for free with their match day tickets.
A renegotiation stipulated that transportation would be offered “at cost” on match days, FIFA added earlier.
‘Crazy’
A French fan group called the price “completely crazy.”
“Every day there is bad news about transport; one really wonders how far this madness will go,” said Guillaume Aupretre, spokesman for the fan organization “Irresistibles Francais.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul also took aim at the reported price increase.
“Charging more than $100 for a short train ride seems awfully high to me,” Hochul wrote in X.
About $100 million of US federal funds have been allocated to host cities to cover transportation network costs, including $8.7 million for Boston and Massachusetts, and $10.4 million for the New York-New Jersey area, according to local media reports.
The head of the Football Supporters’ Association of England (FSA), Thomas Concannon, told the bbc “All that has come out of this tournament so far is that fans are being fleeced.”
“The price is obviously astronomical in terms of what you would expect to pay to attend a game,” he said Friday.
“We didn’t expect to be scammed.”
