Mayor Mamdani announced Thursday that the city will hold a lottery for 1,000 World Cup tickets that will only come at a cost of $50 for those lucky enough to be selected.
The lottery will be split up into batches for various games in the group stage and knockout round during the six-week tournament — but none for the finals.
Tickets are currently selling for some of those early games, such as France vs Senegal, on the secondary market for around $500 to $800 for the cheapest seats.
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The city’s $50 ticket program also comes with round-trip tickets to the games in New Jersey via bus.
Mamdani touted the announcement in one of his signature social vids — joking what else you could get for $50, including 10 months of “hard-hitting journalism” from the New York Post.
City Hall says the Host Committee, which has been largely funded by New York and New Jersey taxpayer dollars, is providing the tickets.
However, Hizzoner danced around the answer when pressed on how much they cost.
“These are part of the conversation so we’ve been having with the host committee and the partnership that we built with the host video of this time, I can tell you that there’s no taxpayer funding going towards the allocation of these tickets,” he said.
New York City alone has sent $35 million to the Host Committee.
It was unclear why New Yorkers outside the city weren’t eligible for a similar program, as well as New Jersey residents.
