Going to North America '26: tickets, accommodations, etc. (non-politics)

Cosm is pricey but looks absolutely insane.

 

Yeah - you sell your soul as a city when you get the WC or The Olympics.
Is a really bad look, though. Part of the sell is that they are big cities with big facilities that CAN handle big events.
I didnt hear any of this with Taylor Swift or Oasis concerts.
Ramping up prices implies the thing is too big for you.
I get aa taxpayer being hacked off at free transport for non-residents.
But jusr put on the service you would do for a Jet/Giants etc.

On the subject of fan fests I am 'meh'. All of the cities hosting have a football culture. (When am in Vancouver will be watching with the Man City supporters club). There will be events all over the place in bars and sports club. Will be better than organised 'fun' anyway.

 

Absolutely. Right across from the stadium. But LA is massive. Where will you be staying? @treacleb

 

Good point. Getting fans to a world Cup matches is no different than an NFL game, concert etc. something they do every week. Just do your job without trying to rip people off.

 

Looks like they added direct match links to the alerts in each channel.
Now when a drop happens, you get a link that takes you straight to your chosen match. Saves a lot of time since there’s no need to search for the match manually or open multiple tabs anymore.
Makes the whole process way smoother if you're trying to catch tickets fast.

https://discord.com/wc26scanner

 

Ha fair point - staying about 10 min drive from SoFi. Happy to travel a bit for a vibe, but have seen that the fan fest's in LA start the day after we move on..

 

It is different. My understanding is FIFA is reducing parking from 20,000 to 5,000 in Boston (similar numbers in other stadiums). So that's 15,000 less vehicles, and if we assume 2.5 people/vehicle, that's an extra 37,500 people that need transit.

Agree the cities should have communicated their plans further in advance. And looks like KC has a good model.

I figured Boston & San Francisco would be the most complicated.

New York is a little surprising. I don't have experience going to that stadium. But I assumed most Giants/Jets fans attended via public transport rather than car and therefore public transportation options would be reasonable. Especially since that stadium hosts large concerts all the time too. I wonder if the politics of different states (NY & NJ) plus the mayoral city itself is causing some of this, which each of these wanting the other to pay the cost. The other stadiums don't have this cross-state political issue.

 

Seems like they've immediately walked this back after the backlash

 

Nice summary of the finger pointing between FIFA and NJT: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...-fifa-pay-extra-train-costs-metlife-world-cup

 

"We inherited an agreement where FIFA is providing $0 for transportation to the World Cup,"

"The original FIFA World Cup 2026 host city agreements signed in 2018 required free transportation for fans to all matches."

Publish the signed document FIFA. NJ is just trying to ripp us off.

 

I am pretty certain the answer is yes but woudl be grateful if someone would confirm that all the subways in Atlanta, New York and Philli take payment by credit card tapping rather than having to previously buy any tickets.

 

NYC subway does take tap to pay (finally!), even mobile wallet tap to pay

 

Toronto is so multicultural that there are almost certainly better places to watch than the Fan Fest. This isn't like in previous WC's where the (only) place to meet other nationalities was at the Fan Fest.

Same goes for many of the larger host cities like NYC, LA, Houston, Boston, etc.

 

"The original FIFA World Cup 2026 host city agreements signed in 2018 required free transportation for fans to all matches. Recognizing the financial strain this placed on the host cities, back in 2023 FIFA adjusted the host agreement requirements across all host cities as follows: All match ticket holders and accredited individuals shall be able to access transport [public or additionally planned transport] at cost to allow travel to stadiums on match days"

"Moreover, FIFA has worked for years with host cities on their transportation and mobility plans, including advocating for millions of dollars in federal funding to support host cities for transportation"

I can't believe what I'm about to say, but, if all of this is true (and it sounds like there are documents to back it up), I might have to side with FIFA on this one!

 

I kinda did something like this last wc but with the F1 in abu dhabi before my first game at qatar, I fell asleep for a bit on Netherlands vs Senegal lol, would still do it again though

 

whinny politician now trying to act like she didn't know... NJ should have done what Chicago did! Not sign the agreement.

 

FIFA are gouging us on ticket prices. Boston and NJ saw that and decided to gouge on transport. There is no justifiction for charging several multiples of the normal rate.

I attended 4 games in the Metlife at the CWC last year. The 2 semi finals sent fans back during rush hour. It was still normal commuter fares. Crowded but still worked.

By all means blame FIFA for the ripoff ticket prices. The transport price gouging is done by the locals. These foreing visitors are stupid enough to pay FIFA's ticket prices. Let's charge them $100 for a crap public transport ride as they must be really stupid. And yes i know she is Irish American , one of our own.

 

MetLife has 27,500 parking spaces that are not being made available, replaced by a much smaller number of very expensive spaces at the mall.

 

Previous WC's had their own subsection on the forums and it was much easier to track threads that way. Will this be the same for 2026? Like 10 of the latest 12 threads in the "Fifa and Tournaments" forum are all 2026 related.

 

No brother. As the new NJ governor said, FIFA changed the NY/NJ signed agreement on 2023. WC host cities were announced on June 2022. Free fan transportation died on 2023.

This is how petty FIFA is: FIFA cut WC operating expenses by $100M after Foxboro refused to sign its permit for WC matches. Nobody is going after FIFA for that dick move, though.

Tomorrow Friday, NJ officials will announce their transportation plan for WC matches at MetLife. Their unofficial $100 round-trip ticket should be confirmed by then.

NJTransit will spend $48M for moving WC fans to a venue where fan parking is decimated by FIFA. FIFA also refused to sign a contract with the Megabus shuttle that services NFL games at MetLife.

So yeah, FIFA is mimicking what NFL did when Super Bowl XLVIII was held at MetLife (Feb 2014). NJ transportation was a shit show as a result while train fares were held at regular prices.

 

MetLife parking was open. How many thousands of CWC fans took the train out of NYC?

 

"FIFA worked for years... including advocating for millions of dollars in federal funding..."

FIFA did not work with Foxboro at all, FIFA washed their hands every time Foxboro said 'federal funds are not coming to us, who is paying for safety at Foxboro?'

Instead, the local organizing committee Boston Soccer '26 spent money on lawyers who *threatened* Foxboro officials about breaking Massachusetts state law. Foxboro did not budge, their taxpayers could not shoulder a $7.8M hole in their WC safety budget. The Foxboro stadium owner, who gets a rental fee from FIFA, decided to pay while Boston Soccer '26 said it had just $2M in the bank.

Not one week later, FIFA announced a $100M cut on its WC operating costs. That's the FIFA you are siding with.

 

Parking was significantly reduced. It was a dry run for this year. Possibly further reduced this year. There were loads of parking spaces not available last year.

The public transport was very busy. I stayed in Newark but the majority seemed to come from New York. Obviously buses, Uber etc as well.

The free public transport is a binus and obviously very welcome at previous torunaments. I don't think anyone would begrudge paying the regular fare as Philly etc are charging. However $100 is insane.

I didn't get a single ticket for the Metlife. It doesn't affect me. I am not going there this year. However it is a disgrace.

 

He said, she said... whatever.

Diluted games, crazy ticket prices, expensive parking/train/buses, long distances, cartel wars, host cities regretting what they signed up for... everything is fine, right??

 

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