USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
NJ Transit estimated it would cost nearly $50 million to run trains for fans at World Cup games at MetLife Stadium, and people opting for that form of transportation will need to shell out nearly $100 for a ticket. However, it does not appear they’re scrambling to do so based on how many have been sold less than two weeks before they’re set to get underway.
At this point, it’s become very apparent that the 2026 World Cup has not been designed to cater to people who are on a budget. FIFA has drawn plenty of criticism for the pricing strategy it’s harnessed for the games that will transpire between June 11th and July 19th, but tickets to attend aren’t the only steep cost that many fans will have to stomach.
The cost of transportation for World Cup games has also become a very hot topic of conversation. Some fans from Scotland hired an army of school buses to counter the sticker shock they were greeted with while figuring out how to get to matches at Gillette Stadium, and people who are planning on heading to MetLife Stadium for one have also been greeted with some astronomical prices.
In April, we learned NJ Transit was planning to charge $150 for round-trip train tickets between Penn Station and the Meadowlands venue that will officially be known as “New York New Jersey Stadium” during the tournament. The price was eventually lowered to $105 after private sponsors stepped in to subsidize the operational costs that were pegged at $48 million, and that number currently sits at $98 a pop (compared to the $12.90 usually charged for non-World Cup events there).
However, there has not exactly been a mad dash to scoop them up based on the current sales numbers.
NJ Transit has only sold around 6% of the train tickets it’s offering for the World Cup
The stadium I will personally continue to refer to as MetLife will serve as the site of eight World Cup games, starting with the showdown between Brazil and Morocco on June 13th and finishing with the final on July 19th.
NJ Transit is planning on ferrying 40,000 people to and from a venue that holds just over twice that number for those contests, which means it is counting on raking in a little over $31,000,000 in ticket sales. However, it has a long, long way to get there as things currently stand.
According to The Athletic, the agency had sold just 17,739 of those $98 tickets as of Monday evening (good for around $1.7 million in revenue), which accounts for just 5.5% of the total allotment.
There is little doubt some fans are waiting until the games get closer to pull the trigger (including plenty of people who will wait to see the draws in the round of 32, round of 16, and final before committing). With that said, it also seems safe to assume many are also attempting to find cheaper transportation (including a shuttle bus that will only set you back $20 but has a per-game capacity between 12,000 and 18,000 people).
It’s probably still too early to definitively predict how things are going to pan out, but that’s certainly not the most promising start.