New York and New Jersey are barreling toward more travel chaos for Tuesday’s World Cup game at MetLife Stadium as up to 50,000 train tickets remain unsold – but Mayor Zohran Mamdani is brushing off the looming disaster.
Thousands of fans are apparently intent on getting to the 3 p.m. match-up between France and Senegal at the East Rutherford, NJ, stadium any way but by train — which costs an outrageous $98 for the mandatory two-way NJ Transit ticket.
While New York state has buses lined up for $10 each way, the 12,000 available spots are already sold out.
That only leaves fans with the options of an over-the-top costly train ride, hiring a ride-share or driving and trying to snag one of the available measly 3,500 parking spots.
But neither Mamdani nor his special “World Cup” czar seem concerned — even after thousands of spectators spent hours trying to leave the venue after Saturday’s game.
Instead, the officials have been privately and publicly brushing off worries by predicting people will sign up for the train at the last minute — even though that “plan” failed for the first local game Saturday.
“We saw a significant number of ticket holders buying their tickets for mass transit just in the hours before the game, and continue to encourage everyone to do so far in advance,” Mamdani claimed at an unrelated event Monday morning.
“We also say that there continues to be additional capacity on New Jersey Transit, and so for those who have yet to buy their tickets, that is one way that we are going to encourage them to do so. And I appreciate the efforts of all the city government in sharing this message,” he said.
The “sharing” of the message involves the city is continuing to pump out Hizzoner’s online “Morning Pitch” news briefing that provides weather and traffic.
The game is expected to draw about 80,000 fans. Given that 12,000 have bought spots on New York state’s buses, another 12,000 have bought NJTransit train tickets and there are about 3,500 parking spots, that leaves up to 50,000 attendees up in the air.
A city official also pinned some of the blame on Mamdani’s “World Cup czar” and ex-campaign manager Maya Handa, claiming she privately poo-pooed the problem over the weekend, too.
“They knew they did not sell nearly enough [NJ Transit] tickets. They knew and said, ‘Oh they’ll just buy them at the last minute,’ ” a official with knowledge of the situation told The Post.
“What they have been focused on is the mission and vision but nothing about the logistics; they have been focusing on what font styles and branding the campaign font, not bringing the organizations and departments together.”
Handa’s official job title is “strategic initiative specialist” for the city, and she earns a nifty $220,000 annually, according to records.
She took over as campaign manager for Mamdani down the homestretch of his general-election race and previously worked for other lefty Dems’ campaigns such as the failed presidential run of Sen Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
“It is a problem to appoint people to these high-profile, high-stakes roles and they don’t know what they are doing,” the Post source griped.
But City Hall insisted its staff is using various other tools in a bid to get fans on train rails for the remaining seven matches scheduled at MetLife.
“In various formats, the Mamdani administration has sent a total of over 7.5 million notifications to New Yorkers and visitors about World Cup-related transportation,” a rep said in a statement.
“The Mamdani administration employed multiple strategies to educate ticketholders on the best modes of transport to get to and from the game, including press outreach through multiple briefings, direct engagement with ticketholders, NotifyNYC alerts, a paid media campaign and signage by DOT to inform New Yorkers about traffic mitigation, the Volunteer Welcome Corps, multiple live streams and informational social media posts.”
After Saturday’s travel debacle, an Uber representative even tweeted that the company couldn’t meet the demand and implored attendees to catch a train or bus. Uber told outlets the company’s drivers moved about 6,500 fans Saturday.
NJT meanwhile said it brought 21,578 fans by bus or train Saturday after the agency anticipated about 40,000 fans relying on public transit in the lead-up to the tourney.
A transportation source previously bashed New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill for the lack of train sides, arguing the high price for a train ticket discouraged riders from relying on public transit.
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