Midtown is out of bounds.
A wide pitch of Manhattan will fall under “gridlock alert” during eight 2026 World Cup matches to deal with an expected crush of soccer fans, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Friday.
The transportation plan will convert 42nd Street into an island-wide bus corridor, create car-free spaces near Penn Station and drastically restrict truck deliveries for a 30-block stretch during game days, among other limitations.
The restrictions — especially for deliveries, which would apply between 30th Street and 60th Street for six hours before each soccer match and three hours afterward — struck many Midtown business owners as overkill.
“It’s going to cause craziness,” said Stathis Antonakopoulos, who owns five Carnegie Diner & Cafe locations.
“I don’t think the amount of people for this festivity is more than the amount of people of tourists that come during the last quarter of the year, which is from Thanksgiving to all the way to New Year’s Eve. I think it’ll be the same amount of people, the same type of craziness and we don’t do restrictions at that time of deliveries between those hours.”
Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said the city sprang the restrictions at the last minute.
“We’ve known the World Cup was coming for years, so you can imagine that restaurants and bars are frustrated that the city gave them such short notice about these new delivery restrictions,” he said.
“Now they’ll have to scramble to figure out whether they’re affected and try to adjust their deliveries accordingly, especially when they’re hoping to be busy serving World Cup fans.”
City officials maintained the restrictions, as well as street closures near Penn Station to create space for ticket-holder lines, were necessary to minimize disruptions for New Yorkers during World Cup match days.
“With increased activity on match days, we strongly encourage New Yorkers to avoid driving into Manhattan and to fully utilize mass transit to get to your favorite watch parties this summer,” said Mike Flynn, the city’s transportation commissioner, in a statement.
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