Zohran Mamdani is hoping to score big with New York soccer fans.
The Democratic socialist mayoral hopeful launched a petition on Tuesday night calling on FIFA to drop its plan to use dynamic pricing for next summer’s World Cup that is being jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, with the final game slated to be played at MetLife Stadium.
The campaign, dubbed “Game Over Greed,” was launched with a stylized video of the candidate posted to social media shortly after The Athletic broke the news of Mamdani’s planned petition.
As part of his call to action, Mamdani, 33, is demanding that FIFA reverse course with its dynamic pricing plan — which sets ticket prices based on demand from fans. He also called for setting a cap on resale prices and putting aside 15 percent of tickets at a discounted rate for local residents.
“The World Cup is coming to New York next year, and as a lifelong soccer fan, I couldn’t be more excited,” Mamdani said in the video. “But are any working-class New Yorkers actually going to be able to watch any of the matches? Pre-sale starts tomorrow and for the first time, FIFA is using dynamic pricing. They’re going to figure out in real time how much they can get away with for charging a ticket.
“The tickets can be resold on an official FIFA platform with no price cap. That means you can buy a ticket for 60 bucks and sell it for $6,000.”
Mamdani then blasted FIFA for not setting aside tickets for locals to attend the matches before directing viewers to his campaign website to sign a petition, after saying that “the biggest sporting event in the world is happening in your backyard and you’ll be priced out of it.”
Neither FIFA nor a spokesperson for the New York/New Jersey Host Committee immediately responded when sought for comment by The Post.
FIFA confirmed earlier this month that it would be using dynamic pricing for the 2026 World Cup, with the cheapest ticket prices for the group stage starting at $60 and reaching up to $6,730 for the priciest ticket for the final.
The model has drawn concern from fans around the world, including from a group called Football Supporters Europe, which sent a letter to FIFA general secretary Mattias Grafstrom in July to express “serious concerns” about the then-reports about dynamic pricing.
MetLife Stadium is hosting eight World Cup matches in 2026, with five group stage games, one match in the Round of 32, one match in the Round of 16 and the final.
FIFA is expected to make more than $3 billion in ticket sales from the World Cup, The Athletic reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Mamdani expressed concerns directly to any officials from FIFA or the NYNJ Host Committee.
Tuesday night’s announcement comes as Mamdani sits as the frontrunner in this November’s election after a new Siena Research/NY Times poll showed he would receive 46 percent of likely voters if it remains a four-way race.
Read the full article here
