Fans attending this summer’s World Cup games at MetLife Stadium will have to pay sky-high transportation fees and deal with several security checkpoints just to get to the Meadowlands, according to a plan released by NJ Transit and FIFA officials on Friday.
NJ Transit will charge an eye-popping $150 for a round-trip train to each game, a major markup of the usual $12.90 price. The special World Cup tickets will go on sale May 13 online.
The trains will be reserved for people who have World Cup tickets to the games. Officials said riders will be issued NJ Transit wristbands, which must be shown to ride the trains before and after each game.
NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri described it as a Disney-like experience.
“It’s a very simple calculation for us. We’re excited, willing and capable of doing it,” he said.
Officials also said the NJ Transit portion of New York Penn Station will be off limits to anyone not traveling to the games ahead of the matches. People riding to other parts of New Jersey out of Manhattan will have to wait until the service ends to take their regular train home.
For three hours after each match, officials said all non-World Cup NJ Transit trains to New York will terminate at Newark Penn Station or Newark Broad Street instead of New York Penn Station. Riders on those trains will be directed to PATH for trips to New York City, where their tickets will be cross-honored.
Kolluri said earlier this week that NJ Transit will only sell 40,000 train tickets for each of the eight World Cup matches held in New Jersey, meaning they’ll carry roughly half the stadium's capacity for each game.
There will be no parking for attendees at the Meadowlands during the games due to FIFA’s security restrictions. Officials recommended that people who want to drive park at the nearby American Dream Mall, where there will be 5,000 parking spaces, and walk over to the stadium on a pedestrian walkway. Taxi drop-offs will also be possible at Meadowlands Racing and Entertainment.
FIFA officials estimated they’d get 22,000 people to each game through its “VIP services” for sponsors and VIP visitors. The group estimated another 6,000 would take cabs. It said it couldn’t keep companies like Uber and Lyft from imposing surge pricing.
The remaining 10,000 attendees were expected to take a shuttle bus to the games. The New York-New Jersey Host Committee posted round-trip tickets for the buses on its website on Friday, for $80. The buses will run out of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, streets just east of Grand Central Terminal, and the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.
Officials said they expect people to return from the stadium the same way they got there.
Kolluri said the total cost to NJ Transit for running trains with heightened security is $48 million, or about $6 million per game. The original cost estimate was $62 million, but a $10.7 million federal grant and $3.6 million from the host committee lowered the final bill for the transit agency.
“This is no ordinary event,” Kolluri said. “I can’t tell you how important security is for this event.”
The cost of security alone is $11 million, officials said.
“That’s not what happens at a Taylor Swift concert,” Kolluri added. “Fans going to the game should bear the costs.”
He urged other NJ Transit commuters to avoid travelling on days when the matches will be held. The World Cup games in New Jersey begin on June 13 and conclude with the tournament’s championship on July 19.
Kolluri also warned soccer fans not to bring flares to the game, which he says is a tradition at many World Cup matches.
NJ Transit struggled with overcrowding during the 2014 Super Bowl at the Meadowlands, but has had more success in recent years transporting people during mega concerts by stars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé at MetLife Stadium. The agency’s leaders said they’ve learned lessons from the 2014 debacle.
There will be three layers of security for World Cup ticketholders, with checkpoints set up at New York Penn Station, Secaucus Junction and MetLife Stadium, officials said.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill argued FIFA stands to make $11 billion off the games and should help cover the costs for NJ Transit’s service.
“They need to defray some of this cost,” she said on WNYC this week.
NJ Transit is already facing a $200 million deficit, some of which Kolluri blamed on expensive security for games and events at the Meadowlands. He argued that was one reason why World Cup transportation will be so expensive.
If the trains are disrupted during the games, NJ Transit plans to have 485 buses ready to deploy from Midtown, officials said.
NJ Transit's board this week gave Kolluri sweeping power to increase fares to cover any security costs to the transit agency and “take any actions deemed necessary” for transporting people to the games.
