FIFA, NYC Mayor Announce Free World Cup Final Watch Party in Central Park

Central Park will play host to a giant watch party for the 2026 World Cup final on July 19, it was announced Monday.

The event, made possible through a $6 million investment from the state of New York, will feature huge LCD screens and immersive sound systems for the full fan experience, as well as food vendors, local New York City DJs and a halftime show.

“We together are here to announce that we are having the largest watch party for the biggest match in the world right here in Central Park,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said from Central Park.
“And guess what the price tag is? It’s free.”

The event, taking placing on Central Park’s Great Lawn, will hold up to 50,000 people, who can apply for free tickets via a lottery that opens on Thursday at 10 a.m. ET at globalcitizen.org.

The Governor added: “There’s no better place. The quintessential New York experience to bring everyone to this location...This is the summertime go-to spot for New Yorkers, and now, it will be the city’s front row seat to that beautiful game.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and FIFA President Gianni Infantino were also present in Central Park for the big reveal.

“The most iconic match of the most iconic tournament in the world deserves to be watched in the most iconic park in the world with the most iconic skyline as its backdrop,” Mamdani said.

Mamdani Speaks Out on World Cup Affordability Crisis

Mamdani at the podium — Mamdani has been outspoken about how expensive this summer’s edition of the World Cup is. | Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Global Citizen

The Mayor once again spoke out on the enormous price tag that comes with attending World Cup matches this summer, a reality that FIFA—and Infantino, specifically—has come under heavy fire for.

“At a time where sports experiences and memories they create have grown increasingly unattainable for working people, we will make this viewing party 100% free,” Mamdani said from the podium just steps in front of Infantino’s listening ears. “You will need not spend thousands of dollars to watch the final alongside your fellow New Yorkers.

Category 1 seats for the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. are priced at over $10,000, well over quadruple the price of a seat at the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, which averaged $1,607 to see Argentina and France in a historic battle. The final four years ago was already a stark increase from the 2018 World Cup final, which averaged $1,100 a ticket.

FIFA’s steep price increasing comes as a result of the governing body’s use of “dynamic pricing,” a first for the tournament. Infantino has defended the practice as FIFA merely adapting to the reality of the U.S. market. “We are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world, so we have to apply market rates,” he said last month.

Mamdani has vehemently opposed FIFA’s pricing tactics since tickets first became available in September. “FIFA’s approach to the ticket process of this World Cup is both without precedent in their own administration of previous World Cups and is also an approach that will price out so many New Yorkers from actually being able to be in the stands,” he said back then. Prices have only increased in subsequent ticket sale phases.

The Mayor, an avid soccer fan himself, has since worked to make the World Cup more affordable and accessible for New York City fans this summer, such as organizing free, multi-day events in all five boroughs and securing one thousand $50 tickets to seven of the eight matches at MetLife for city residents.

“This is but one of a larger effort to make the World Cup belong to every New Yorker,” Mamdani added on Monday. “...We will make this World Cup one that as many people as possible can participate in. I want to thank everyone who shares that same mission, all those who have done so much to make the world’s game belong to the world.”

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