New York City Secures 1,000 $50 World Cup Tickets for Residents via Lottery

7 articles · Updated · WABC-TV · May 21

1,000 World Cup tickets priced at $50 each will be offered to New York City residents through a lottery for seven matches at MetLife Stadium, with winners allowed to buy up to two seats.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani secured the deal directly with FIFA after raising affordable access with President Gianni Infantino during a March meeting at City Hall.
May 25 to May 30 is the application window at regnyctix.com, with capacity for up to 50,000 applications a day and winners set to be notified on June 3.
The tickets cover five group-stage games plus round-of-32 and round-of-16 matches—not the July 19 final—and include free round-trip bus transport.
Non-transferable, upper-tier seats will be handed to winners only on game day to curb resale, as the city pushes to keep World Cup attendance accessible for local fans.

Beyond 1,000 lottery tickets, what is the real plan to make the world’s biggest event accessible to average New Yorkers?

With NYC facing huge costs and weak hotel demand, is the World Cup's promised economic boom already a bust?