The city announced Monday that Central Park’s Great Lawn will host a free watch party for 50,000 people during the FIFA World Cup Final on July 19, with tickets available via a lottery that opens Thursday.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani made the announcement on a sunny Monday morning in Central Park, where he had just finished taking penalty kicks on a newly unveiled mini soccer pitch with a group of kids.
Standing alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and soccer legend George Weah — the former Ballon d’Or winner and ex-president of Liberia, whom Mamdani said he idolized as a child growing up in East Africa — the mayor cast the watch party as a matter of basic fairness.
“In a moment where sports experiences and the memories they create have grown increasingly unattainable for working people,” Mamdani said, “we will make this viewing party 100% free.”
The event, backed by $6 million from Empire State Development and $3.5 million from New York City, will feature three large LED screens, immersive sound, live entertainment, and local food vendors. iHeartRadio personalities Charlamagne tha God and Elvis Duran are set to emcee.
Fans who gather for the final match will also be able to enjoy the halftime show featuring Shakira, Madonna, and BTS — produced by Global Citizen and curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
To enter the free lottery, New Yorkers can visit globalcitizen.org/watchparty starting this Thursday, June 11, at 10 a.m. Entrants will be asked to read a short article about the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund to qualify. The lottery stays open through July 16. Twenty percent of tickets will be reserved for local nonprofits and NYC Service volunteers, according to officials.
Who is the FIFA World Cup for?
The announcement comes as the tournament’s host region is grappling with serious questions about who the World Cup is actually for.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport launched a joint investigation last month into FIFA’s ticketing practices, alleging the organization misled fans about seat locations and deliberately staggered ticket releases to drive up prices.
On top of affordability, the tournament faces another access issue. A recent BBC investigation found that fans from more than a quarter of the countries competing in the World Cup are facing travel bans, tighter visa restrictions, or rejection rates of more than 40% when applying to enter the United States.
Four nations competing in the tournament — Haiti, Iran, Senegal, and Ivory Coast — are on President Trump’s travel ban list, barring their citizens from the standard visitor visa recommended for fans.
Mamdani addressed the issue directly at the June 8 press conference, calling visa denials for journalists covering the tournament and the rejection of a team coach’s entry credentials “anathema to what this tournament is supposed to be about.”
He said the federal government’s approach raised fundamental questions about America’s commitment to the spirit of the competition.
“If we cannot even allow the players, the teams, and the journalists covering those teams to come into this city and this country,” he said, “it begs a larger question.”
Mamdani was also asked why he would share a stage with Infantino, given the AG probe, sky-high ticket prices, and his own history of publicly attacking FIFA.
As a mayoral candidate last September, Mamdani launched a “Game Over Greed” petition calling on FIFA to scrap dynamic pricing and cap resale ticket prices, accusing the governing body of implementing “predatory ticketing practices” that would price locals out of their own backyard.
On Monday, the now-mayor pointed to more recent concrete results of partnering with the soccer body, most notably securing 1,000 World Cup tickets at $50 each, which he said no other host city had managed.
“These are New Yorkers who have dreamed of this moment for their entire life,” he said, “and being able to get that price point of $50 with a free round-trip ticket meant that working-class New Yorkers could actually be at this game.”
The watch party is part of a broader effort by the Mamdani administration to spread World Cup access across all five boroughs, including free fan festivals in each borough, a discounted dining program at hundreds of local restaurants, and field days at 50 public schools.
The FIFA Arena mini pitch, operated by Street Soccer USA, will be open in Central Park through July 18 with free clinics and open play at streetsoccerusa.org/central-park.
Mamdani closed his remarks with a nod to Weah, who famously never got to play in a World Cup despite being the greatest player his country ever produced.
“We cannot go back in time,” the mayor said. “We will do the next best thing. We will make this World Cup one that as many people as possible can participate in.”
