13/05/2026
New York and New Jersey are turning the World Cup into an interstate turf war
With dueling plans to cut transit costs for fans, neighboring governors Mikie Sherrill and Kathy Hochul are both claiming home-field advantage
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill arrive at a ceremony.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul have found themselves divided over plans to move World Cup fans across their region.
The U.S., Canada and Mexico are figuring out how to stage a World Cup together. New York and New Jersey can’t.
The two states, which share responsibility for eight World Cup matches including the final, released dueling plans Tuesday to lower travel prices for ticketholders, a response by their affordability-focused leaders to a rising international concern that World Cup costs have spiraled unmanageably out of control.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a plan for $20 school-bus shuttle rides to MetLife Stadium on match days, The Athletic first reported. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced she had located sponsors to help cut the cost of riding New Jersey Transit trains and buses by one-third from an original $150 ticket price.
The fact that New York and New Jersey officials released those plans separately — Hochul with an exclusive handed out to a sports reporter, Sherrill with a social media post — revealed a host-city region riven along both political and geographic lines, another tit-for-tat twist in the bordering states’ long-running rivalry.
The lack of cooperation could become confusing for spectators visiting the United States’s largest population center from around the world. Many will be forced to navigate a balkanized public-transit network as they travel from New York, where most visiting fans are expected to stay, to New Jersey, where matches will be played at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.
Technically, New York City and the state of New Jersey are cohosts, linked through a common organizing committee chaired by former New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy.
But Hochul’s office has taken an increasingly assertive role in event planning, raising New Jersey’s ire twice. In April, Hochul said the original $150 transit fare the Sherrill administration originally planned to charge could throw “cold water” on the tournament. Then she said the World Cup would be in New York, ignoring the tortured protocol of calling it the “New York New Jersey” World Cup.
That set off a war of words between Hochul’s and Sherrill’s press teams, which Hochul tried to smooth over with a selfie taken with a bi-state gaggle of politicians including Sherrill during a visit to the 9/11 Memorial.
But New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, like Hochul and Sherrill and nearly every other one of the region’s elected officials a Democrat, did not let the comment drop. A week later, he was continuing to taunt Hochul with social media posts like, “If you’re planning to watch a FIFA match in New York, you’ll be SOL.”
In their clashing transit plans, Hochul is aiming to deliver the lowest fare for those reaching the stadium, which is only six miles from Central Park, but separated by two rivers, assorted bridges and tunnels, and some of the nation’s worst traffic. A pop-up shuttle network using loaned school buses, which will be administered by the host committee, will reportedly cost taxpayers $6 million.
“Getting to the World Cup should be as accessible as possible,” Hochul said on X, adding some of the $20 bus seats would be reserved for New York residents.
Sherrill has been focused less on the cost to visiting World Cup ticketholders and more on sparing her state’s budget. Data collected by tournament planners shows few of the ticketholders inside MetLife to be New Jersey residents, according to a person familiar with the region’s transportation policy, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the situation.
New Jersey said it was able to lower its fare from the original $150 in part thanks to sponsorship dollars from DoorDash, Audible, FanDuel, DraftKings, PSE&G, South Jersey Industries and American Water. Several of those companies are public utilities.
“Thanks to FIFA-related advertising revenue, higher-than-anticipated non-FIFA advertising revenue and additional federal grants, NJ TRANSIT has cut the FIFA round-trip ticket from $150 to $98 — keeping Governor Mikie Sherrill’s pledge not to pass on costs onto commuters or New Jersey taxpayers,” New Jersey Transit head Kris Kolluri said in a text message.
The two different transportation plans also highlight a long-standing fragmentation of the region’s mass transit system — four different transit agencies operate in the region, often fighting over how to share tracks and who pays for what.
While New York’s plan will be cheaper for fans, those who choose New Jersey’s option will probably get out of the Meadowlands and to New York City more quickly. A $98 ticket will secure a seat on a commuter train from Penn Station, avoiding congested Hudson River crossings and Manhattan streets.
Politico.com
