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It is noble that Gov. Mikie Sherrill has decided to stand up to FIFA on behalf of New Jersey taxpayers and commuters. But the satisfying uppercut she is throwing at the world’s most corrupt sports organization will only hit soccer fans squarely in the face.
That’s the reality of the decision to charge a reported $150 for a round-trip NJ Transit ticket from the Meadowlands following the eight World Cup games in East Rutherford. It isn’t FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the Dr. Evil of the world’s most popular sport, who will have to dig into his pocket for a seat on one of our much-maligned commuter trains. He’ll have a limo waiting for him at Teterboro.
It is the family that already has spent thousands of dollars for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will pay this outrageous price for this 15-minute ride on an overcrowded train. Is it not fair to assume, when making this kind of investment for tickets to an event, that you’d actually be able to get there without needing to open another line of credit?
Driving isn’t an affordable option, either, not with limited parking at the nearby American Dream mall going for a whopping $225, and given what everything else costs, just imagine the price gouging that is coming on rideshare apps in two months.
The World Cup has become cartoonishly inaccessible for regular soccer fans. You could spend more to attend the Norway-Senegal match than to actually fly to Oslo for a family vacation.
So, sure, good for Sherrill for taking a stand. She is right that FIFA should pay the $48 million bill to move thousands of fans to the stadium on game day. “I’m not putting this on the back of New Jerseyans,” the first-year Democratic governor said on WNYC, and she no doubt scored some easy political points in the process.
But let’s be real. Your kid’s travel soccer team has a better shot at beating Lionel Messi and Argentina than New Jersey has of getting FIFA officials to pay a single extra penny for this. This is an organization that ignored rampant human rights violations to put its premier event in Qatar four years ago, and charges of bribery and corruption soon followed that decision. You think it cares about an inconvenience at the Secaucus Junction?
“FIFA is not aware of any other major event previously held at NYNJ Stadium, including other major sports, global concert tours, etc., where organizers were required to pay for fan transportation,” a FIFA spokesperson told NJ.com, a statement that proves even corrupt organizations can sometimes make a fair point.
Remember: New Jersey wanted this thing — badly. Sherrill’s predecessor, Phil Murphy, wooed FIFA for years to land the biggest prize — the World Cup Final — with the expectation that it would bring prestige and tourism dollars to the state this summer.
“The game is huge, and by the way, we’ll have eight of them — which is crazy,” Murphy told me in a phone interview after the announcement. “The huge story, if we do it right, will be the build-up to the game (of soccer) and the legacy that will be measured in decades that this event will leave behind.”
The five key words in there — if we do it right — are at stake now. Even if you think it’s fine to pass along the costs of getting to the game to fans, this decision is inviting the kind of transportation disaster that could make New Jersey a laughingstock.
What if thousands of fans try to avoid the $150 tickets and look for another way to get home from the stadium? It isn’t hard to imagine frustrated Norwegian fans trying to find another way back to their hotels and ending up lost on Route 17 in Moonachie.
Already, elements of the transportation plan feel like a disaster waiting to happen. The decision to close Penn Station to commuters for hours is inviting chaos and anger, and a lot is riding on the host committee’s untested plans for shuttle buses that most of the 80,000-plus fans will need to use, given that NJ Transit is not an affordable option.
“FIFA should pay for the rides,” Sherrill said in a social media video. “But if they don’t, I’m not going to let New Jersey get taken for one.”
It’s a good line. But New Jersey invited the world — and, with it, the world’s most corrupt sports organization — to its doorstep when it went hard after the World Cup. When is someone going to take a stand for the poor schlubs paying these ridiculous prices to attend the games?
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