New Yorkers will be able to watch World Cup matches together for free this summer at five official fan sites across the city — including Brooklyn Bridge Park, Rockefeller Center, and Flushing Meadows — as officials seek to make the tournament accessible to residents priced out of attending matches in person
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday that the city will host one free fan site in each borough during the FIFA World Cup 2026, with live match screenings, local food offerings, cultural programming, and other events planned throughout June and July.
The sites and dates are:
- Queens: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, June 11–27
- The Bronx: Bronx Terminal Market, June 13–14
- Brooklyn: Brooklyn Bridge Park, June 13–July 19
- Staten Island: Staten Island University Hospital Community Park, June 29–July 2
- Manhattan: Rockefeller Center, July 6–19
Soccer fans can get free tickets through the host committee website, nynjfwc26.com. Officials said attendees will need to register online for free tickets through the NY/NJ World Cup host committee, though details on when registration opens and how entry will be managed have not yet been released.
Capacity will also vary by location. The Queens site is expected to hold about 10,000 people at a time, while the Bronx and Staten Island locations will accommodate roughly 5,000 to 10,000 attendees. Officials did not provide a firm capacity for Rockefeller Center.
Dealing with exorbitant World Cup costs
Mamdani said the city and its partners deliberately decided to make the events free after initially planning them as ticketed events.
“These events were not initially set to be free,” he said. “The world’s game should belong to the world.”
The announcement comes as the cost of attending World Cup matches — and even getting to them — has drawn increasing criticism.
New Jersey Transit recently announced $150 round-trip train fares from Penn Station to MetLife Stadium, where the region’s matches will be played, along with $80 shuttle bus options. Those costs are far above typical transit fares and will only be available to ticketed fans.
Mamdani has previously warned that the combination of ticket prices and transportation costs will put the tournament “out of reach for many” working-class fans.
At Monday’s announcement, he reiterated that concern, saying many New Yorkers would not be able to afford stadium tickets and framing the fan sites as an alternative way to take part.
“Soccer is a game that was born out of the working class,” Mamdani said. “The ticket prices that we are seeing are not ones that many working people could even dream of affording.”
Officials said the fan sites are part of a broader strategy to spread World Cup activity across the five boroughs, rather than concentrating it around the stadium in New Jersey.
The region is expected to host more than 1.1 million visitors and generate about $3.3 billion in economic activity, according to Hochul. But those projections come as some hotel and tourism industry officials have questioned whether the tournament will deliver the boom once expected, with New York City hotel bookings reportedly tracking roughly in line with last year, according to the New York Times.
When asked about concerns that visitors might stay near the stadium and not spend money in the city, Mamdani said the administration plans to actively steer tourists into neighborhoods across the five boroughs.
Host committee CEO Alex Lasry said the official fan sites will be supplemented by “thousands” of additional events and watch parties across the city, including programming tied to small businesses.
More announcements are expected in the coming weeks, including details on additional city-run watch parties and street-level events.
Hochul said the state is also planning free large-scale viewing events at Stony Brook University beginning June 12 and at Kensico Dam Plaza in Westchester County on June 19.
She said the state has created a one-day World Cup permit for bars and restaurants to host outdoor watch parties and fan activations, and is extending hours so businesses can stay open until 4 a.m. during live matches out west.
