World Cup fans faced transit hell no matter what for Tuesday’s match at MetLife Stadium.
Spectators who drove to see the 3 p.m. game between France and Senegal in New Jersey were exasperated after paying around $225 to park — then having to walk nearly 30 minutes to the venue — while others crammed into yellow taxis, sometimes with strangers, in Manhattan to get there.
Attendees who took NJ Transit trains also were still calling a penalty on the expensive ticket price — a $98 mandatory round-trip ride.
“It’s like an exorbitant amount above what you would usually pay to get over,” said France fan Sayo Ajagbe, 23, at Penn Station before boarding.
“There’s no way to get over — I might as well have taken an Uber, if it wasn’t for traffic or that it will probably take even more time,” he said.
Akshay Anil, 31, called the transit price “absolutely outrageous” even as he spent $800 on a ticket for the match.
“You can charge a little high, that’s fine,” said Anil, a University of Mississippi student.
“But $98, that’s too much. That like eight times the increase from the regular price.”
The high price was implemented by New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill for the eight games scheduled to take place at the East Rutherford stadium between June and July, leading to outcry leading up to the global tournament.
While scores of fans were also bused over on vehicles provided by New York state out of the Port Authority in Manhattan — a much cheaper alternative to the train at $10 each way — the number of riders was capped at 12,000.
Fans who drove on their own to the American Dream Mall near the stadium weren’t any happier that train riders, walking nearly a half-hour to reach their destination after forking over $225 for a parking spot.
“I paid almost three hundred bucks for parking and still wound up hiking what felt like a mile and a half. I get it, there are security concerns and all that, and overall everyone’s doing a good job keeping order,” said White Plains, NY,resident Anthony DeLuca, 58.
“I’ve just got a bad back, so all the walking takes a toll on me, and that’s before you even get to the stadium side.”
French tourist Elodie Martin said she and her family were confounded by the maze of detours and barriers to get to the stadium, even though she didn’t mind the walk.
“Every time we thought we were there, there was another turn. Once you see the crowd and all the different jerseys, you forget about it,” the married mother of two said.
“But if you’re asking whether the process was smooth, no, not really. For something as big as the World Cup, I expected it to be more straightforward.”
Other fans in the Big Apple let cabbies handle the task of getting them to the game, leading to bargaining among the drivers and fans looking to share rides with strangers to minimize the cost.
A cab driver was asking $120 – toll included — for four people to get to the stadium, or $70, plus toll, for one person going to the Garden State.
A hack even told a Post reporter he would charge the same price for one person or four people at a $100 flat fee.
“You gotta go now because traffic is heavy,” the cabbie said.
While getting to the game was a pain, getting home was likely even tougher.
After thousands of fans dismissed taking the train for Saturday’s first World Cup game at MetLife, many were stuck at the venue for hours waiting to get secure an Uber or Lyft.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said before Tuesday’s match that the city and state on the New York side were working to make the trip over to Jersey as seamless as possible, highlighting the buses set up as an alternative to the pricy trains.
“We hope that it’s gonna be easier to get there,” she said. “Again, return is different. We’re more concerned about getting people in. And also, just making a more positive experience for everybody.“
Additional reporting by Haley Brown