In January 2026, Zohran Mamdani took office as New York City's mayor, promising to make the city more affordable for residents. One of his earliest actions was signing executive orders aimed at cracking down on companies imposing "junk fees" and trapping consumers in subscriptions.
Critics claimed Mamdani also promised to make FIFA World Cup tickets "available to all." The FIFA World Cup soccer tournament will be taking place in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in summer 2026.
Many online poked fun at Mamdani's purported quote, saying the New York mayor had no power to influence FIFA ticket prices. Community Notes on X pointed out that World Cup games were going to be held in New Jersey and not New York.
(X user @MamdaniWatch)
While Mamdani did not specifically state he was making World Cup tickets "available to all," he did call on FIFA to make ticket prices more affordable and opposed the organization's "dynamic pricing" policy. Mamdani also said he wanted to make the World Cup and other experiences be "available to each and every New Yorker."
Dynamic pricing is a strategy in which a company adjusts its product prices based on market demand, supply changes, and other external and internal factors, leading to fluctuating prices, according to Britannica.
We reached out to the mayor's office to determine how exactly he would make FIFA tickets more affordable for New Yorkers and will update this story if we receive a response.
Mamdani made the comments about FIFA's pricing policies at a news conference on Jan. 5, 2026, where he discussed his executive orders. A journalist asked him how the mayor's team would tackle dynamic pricing. Mamdani replied (emphasis ours):
I am thankful that we have an incoming speaker who, as she said, had introduced legislation not even less than a year ago that spoke to dynamic pricing specifically within the question of groceries. And I continue to voice my opposition to the use of dynamic pricing here for the soon-to-come World Cup and the necessity of it being a more affordable experience for all. And I look forward to the conversations, ones that have already begun, both internally and externally, in making that case.
Because what we are seeing — you know, I had a New Yorker the other day, come up to me and ask me if there was any way I could help him get World Cup tickets, because he was saying that the cost that he saw for a game was $600. This is increasingly out of reach. We have made what used to be a working-class game into a luxury experience.
And there are too many for whom it doesn't matter where the World Cup is being played in the world, they know where they're going to watch it. It's TV. And we want to ensure that there are more experiences available to each and every New Yorker.
Mamdani made the comments at the 28:40 mark of the video below:
Mamdani was critical of World Cup ticket prices throughout his 2025 mayoral campaign. In September 2025, he released a video along with a petition calling on FIFA to "end dynamic pricing, cap resale costs, and set aside 15% of tickets for local residents at a discount."
In December 2025, Mamdani said in an interview with CBS News that he would appoint a "World Cup czar" who would push FIFA to lower ticket prices.
"The cheapest ticket to the World Cup Final, which will be here in New York City and New Jersey, according to the Croatian Federation, is $4,000. That's five times more expensive than it was to go to the final in Qatar," he said.
World Cup games are going to be held in a New Jersey stadium, but New York City is expected to play a big role in hosting an influx of tourists and related events. According to FIFA's website, the city will host official events and even a "fan village."
It is unclear how Mamdani would apply his executive orders to FIFA World Cup tickets, given that the tickets will be sold across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
FIFA officials said ticket prices would start at $60 for group-stage matches but could increase to more than $6,000, adding that costs would fluctuate because of dynamic pricing. The organization also implemented a cap on resale prices for tickets in Mexico — something Mamdani has called for in the U.S. — due to the country's strict laws. In December 2025, FIFA said it would make some $60 tickets available for every game in North America for national federations to distribute among loyal fans. However, these tickets will likely be in the hundreds rather than the thousands, according to ESPN.
While Mamdani did not exactly say that he would be making World Cup tickets "available to all," he did say he wanted all New Yorkers to experience the World Cup and called on FIFA to make tickets affordable. While he has issued executive orders targeting business pricing practices in New York City, it wasn't immediately clear how they would apply to the World Cup.
For further reading, have investigated numerous rumors about Mamdani, including the false claim that he was responsible for raising subway and bus fares.