Photo: AFP
The cities that have venues where the 2026 World Cup will be played have been salivating at the thought that they’d make money hand over fist and be a part of one of the world’s premiere sporting events ever since the announcement was made that the United States, Canada and Mexico would jointly host the event. But with the tournament two months away, people are starting to ask if it was worth it. Perhaps the most egregious example of World Cup markups can be seen in what NJ Transit is doing when matches are played at the Meadowlands; a train ticket that normally costs $12.90 will now go for $150.
Former New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy readily signed on for that deal, but current Governor Mikie Sherrill is balking at the deal her predecessor made. 710 WOR’s Curtis Sliwa and Larry Mendte in the Morning program picked up the soccer ball and ran with it: does Sherrill’s claim that New Jersey shouldn’t pay the price for the World Cup markups hold any water?
Curtis contends that the same politicians who are crying “Foul!” now were willing to line up and do whatever it took to get the games in the first place: “They wanted the focus to be on North America, Canada, Mexico and the United States. They lobbied them. Remember, that’s the most crooked organization in the world- fe, fi, fo, fum, FIFA- you bribe them, whatever it takes to get them to pick your venue out. Look at Zohran Mamdani, he’s gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs. We’re gonna lose $40 million in the city; he’s not going to allow activities in the parks during that period of time that the matches are being played at Met Life. So, basically, this is like the Olympics; you lose, you lose, you lose.”
Larry then brought up another little-noticed fact about how NJ Transit riders are going to be stuck, even if they’re not going to the games on game day: “They only got 40,000 tickets, so if you don’t get one of the tickets early on, you’ve got to find your own way, and they only have about 20,000 bus tickets. There’s a whole lot more people than that going to this game, and you can’t park there. There’s no parking because they’re going to have a ‘fan experience’, so FIFA can make even more money.”
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