Newark (United States) (AFP) – World Cup fans will have to pay $150 for the 36-mile roundtrip train trip between New York and Meadowlands stadium when it hosts eight matches including the final, local officials said Friday, drawing condemnation from supporters. Just 40,000 train tickets will be available for each of the games to be played at the New Jersey sports complex, a 56-kilometer return rail trip that is typically just $12.90, officials said at a briefing.
“We are going to charge $150 for our roundtrip ticket on our system. So from New York to MetLife, MetLife back to New York,” said Kris Kolluri, the president and CEO of NJ Transit, using another name for the stadium. “In the FIFA World Cup agreement that my Administration inherited, FIFA put zero dollars towards transporting World Cup fans,” New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill wrote on X Friday. The deal also “eliminated parking” at the stadium, requiring the rail service to transport four times as many fans as it usually does, she said. “This agreement will cost NJ TRANSIT at least $48 million, while FIFA is positioned to make $11 billion during the World Cup.”
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After reports about the rail ticket pricing emerged in The Athletic, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on social media on Tuesday that FIFA should foot the bill for transport costs to World Cup venues. FIFA, which is already facing severe criticism over the sky-high cost of many match ticket prices, issued a strongly-worded statement criticizing the transport price hike. FIFA said that the original host city agreements “required free transportation for fans to all matches.” At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, fans could use the Doha Metro for free with their matchday tickets. A re-negotiation stipulated that transport would be offered “at cost” on match days, FIFA added.
“We are quite surprised by the NJ Governor’s approach on fan transportation,” FIFA said. “The FIFA World Cup will bring millions of fans to North America along with the related economic impact.” It added: “FIFA is not aware of any other major event previously held at NYNJ Stadium, including other major sports, global concert tours, etc., where organizers were required to pay for fan transportation.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul was another to take aim at the reported price hike. “Charging over $100 for a short train ride sounds awfully high to me,” Hochul wrote on X. Some $100 million in US federal funding has been allocated to host cities for transit 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.
England’s Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) chief Thomas Concannon told the BBC “every single thing coming out of this tournament so far is just fans getting fleeced.” “The price is obviously astronomical in terms of what you would expect to pay going to a match,” he said Friday. “We weren’t expecting to be gouged.”
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