On Saturday, the electronic message signs on the bridges and roads to tunnels that connect New York to New Jersey warned:
WORLD CUP FINAL JULY 19th
EXPECT DELAYS
On the Jersey side is East Rutherford, a town with a population of 10,000 that joins the likes of Rome, Berlin, Moscow and Rio de Janeiro as a World Cup final host.
More than 8 million reside in New York City, whose Jets and Giants NFL football teams also play in MetLife Stadium, part of East Rutherford’s Meadowlands Sports Complex.
The Argentina-Spain final will be the eighth 2026 World Cup game in the venue known during the 39 days of the tournament as “New York/New Jersey Stadium.”
“There is no better place on earth to host the world’s game than a city where every nation is already represented, where every language is spoken and every cuisine is eaten,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said when he announced a $50 per seat lottery of 1,000 World Cup tickets and free fan events.
New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdan. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)
It’s been a good World Cup for the 34-year-old Mayor Mamdani, an avid soccer fan.
“To outsiders, it looks like Mamdani is the face of the USA here,” wrote The Guardian’s British columnist Rob Draper, who cited the mayor’s affordable ticket program, New York City’s $20 shuttle buses and the mayor successfully challenging FIFA’s water bottle ban.
“We said from the beginning that the World Cup belongs to New Yorkers. This summer, we proved it,” said Mayor Mamdani.
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