New Jersey Transit, one of the nation's most dysfunctional mass transit organizations, is thinking about charging World Cup fans $100 for roundtrip travel from New York's Penn Station to Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford. The reasoning behind this, as explained by New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, is that FIFA, which runs the World Cup, is not footing any of the expenses related to public transportation—the extra service NJ Transit is running, the extra security, etc.—while also reeling in a ton of the revenue from the World Cup, including parking fees at the stadium.
“One of the key things I wanted to make sure is that we are not going to be paying for moving the people who are viewing the World Cup on the back of New Jersey taxpayers and New Jersey commuters. And so we worked together closely to make sure that that cost will not be borne by New Jerseyans," Sherrill said at a press conference earlier this week.
Sounds like a bad deal for New Jersey! It also sounds like a terrible deal for people who want to watch World Cup games in New Jersey, where even the cheap seats are selling for over $1,000 on the resale market. (And if you won the FIFA ticket lottery, congrats! But those were still running people several hundred dollars.)