Photo by Fancy Crave, Unsplash, Creative Commons License
BRONX, New York
Israel Cervantes works in his family-owned pizzeria, Luciano’s Pizza in Morris Park and he looks forward to the 2026 FIFA World Cup that will run from June 11 to July 19.
The Italian-American community of Morris Park shares a love for soccer with millions in the U.S. and around the world. People go to Luciano’s to watch the matches. “It’s something very beautiful to see, seeing strangers eat pizza together while watching games on TV,” said Cervantes. “It means a lot to me because it brings people together through a shared passion, which is for football,” he said. For the World Cup, Cervantes plans on hosting watch parties with friends and family to root for the Mexican national team.
FIFA projects that the 2026 World Cup will reach approximately six billion viewers through all forms of broadcasts, and more than one million visitors are expected to watch these games in New York, according to Sports Illustrated,
The World Cup is especially important for David Pemberton a rising sophomore who plays for The City College of New York (CCNY) men’s soccer team and grew up a big soccer fan. He was a high school sophomore during the 2022 World Cup and attended watch parties hosted by St. Raymond High School for Boys. “Since the school was focused heavily on basketball, I didn’t expect a lot of people to attend,” explained Pemberton. “Seeing the cafeteria full of students who’ve never watched a full match of soccer, but were still dialed in and cheering after every highlight, was an experience I’ll never forget. Soccer is truly the world’s sport, and the World Cup is the world’s sporting event.”
Eight games will be played in the New York, New Jersey area specifically at MetLife Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey. Five of those are group stage matches played on June 13, 16, 22, 25 and 27. There will be knockout stage matches played on June 30, July 5, and the World Cup final on July 19. The average price for these tickets is estimated to be $864 with scalping and resales. Shuttle busses will be $20 dollars for a round trip to MetLife, and round trip train tickets will be priced at $100. Some of these prices keep shifting.
To combat the expensive prices, Mayor Mamdani came to an agreement with FIFA president Gianni Infantino to make one thousand $50 tickets available to New Yorkers via a lottery. It began on Monday May 25th at 10 a.m and reached its limit of 50,000 in three minutes. Free transportation will also be provided and tickets will be given on match day to avoid scalping.
The official Fan Village of the World Cup at Rockefeller Center will be available for the public from July 6-19. It will feature live match broadcasts with a pop up soccer pitch and other activities.
You can also find fan zones in the Bronx (Bronx Terminal Market, June 13-14, Brooklyn Bridge Park, June 13-July 19, Queens (Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, June 11-27, and Staten Island University Hospital Community Park(June 29- July 2) More information is available at https://nynjfwc26.com/fan-events/
Photo via Unsplash
Series: Sports