According to a May 21 press release from the Office of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani:
… the City of New York, in partnership with the NYNJ Host Committee, has secured 1,000 affordable tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2026™ for New Yorkers at $50 per seat, including free round-trip bus transportation to MetLife Stadium…
… “A World Cup is coming to our backyard, and we want to ensure working-class New Yorkers have the opportunity to be part of it,” said Mayor Mamdani. “We sat down with the Host Committee to make certain this tournament belongs to the people who make this city what it is. Today, 1,000 New Yorkers are going to get into those stands for fifty dollars and a free bus ride. I’m proud that New York City is leading the way.”
The program covers the five group stage matches and two knockout round matches — with approximately 150 tickets allocated per game. New York City residents aged 15 and over may enter a lottery for the chance to purchase tickets, with winners selected randomly.
Entry opens at www.regnyctix.com on Monday, May 25th at 10 a.m. and closes Saturday, May 30th at midnight. New Yorkers may enter once per day, with a daily cap of 50,000 entries. Winners will be notified Wednesday, June 3rd, and may purchase up to two tickets each.
To prevent scalping, tickets will be nontransferable and distributed directly to winners at the official boarding location on the day of each match. Free round-trip transportation from the pickup location to the NYNJ Stadium will be included for every winner….
But Roosevelt Island residents had some problems this morning with the World Cup tickets lottery system. According to a Roosevelt Island Tipster:
I was just trying to register for the Mayor’s World Cup reduced price lottery tickets. Apparently they don’t consider Roosevelt Island part of Manhattan because our zip code is not on the list. I got through the whole registration with the 10044 zip code and they threw me out.
So I’ve called 311. I reported to the Mayor’s Office, but the registration is only for 5 days today, through the 30th and it opens at 10 AM. It’s full already today and it’s only 11:30 AM so get on to that at 10 AM tomorrow morning.
See if you could find out if our zip code could be added. Anyway, just so you know, the mayor’s office doesn’t consider us Manhattan.
Today, I asked Mayor Mamdani’s office:
Roosevelt Island residents discovered today that they are not considered residents of NYC in order to register for the World Cup lottery tickets which became available this morning.
According to one resident:
“WTF! Soccer games are impossible to get if you live on Roosevelt Island. This morning at exactly 10 am my husband and I tried to register online for World Cup tickets that Mandani made possible for New Yorkers. Look what the computer system did”.
She included the attached screenshot photo showing Roosevelt Island’s 10044 is not a valid NYC Zip Code.
Any statement from the Mayor’s office on Roosevelt Island residents not being able to participate in the World Cup tickets lottery for NYC Residents?
A spokesperson for the Mayor’s Press Office answered:
This morning, the 50,000 registration limit was reached in just three minutes. New Yorkers will have the opportunity to register to enter the ticket lottery each morning at 10:00 AM until Saturday, May 30th. Winners will be notified on June 3rd.
Apparently, there were error messages associated with a small number of zip codes that the ticket platform is working to resolve.
I followed up asking:
What were the error message zip codes other than Roosevelt Island’s 10044? Did they have anything in common with each other?
FYI – Roosevelt Island residents often feel their issues are ignored by NYC government, particularly with the current Steam Plant Demolition issue, and seeing that 10044 zip code was not considered a valid NYC zip code fed into that perception.
The Mayor’s Press spokesperson replied:
We are still looking into the error and what zip codes did not function properly. I can tell you that one of the zip codes that seemed to have issues was 10128 which is Gracie Mansion’s zip code.
We hope to have the issue resolved by tomorrow’s registration.
