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Uneven playing field for NJ?

By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... New Jersey and New York are hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup jointly - but perhaps in name only.
..... The most recent document affirming that hosting responsibility, an agreement signed in November 2025, indicts that each side will have to pay its own way.
..... Simply put, despite what the region's official host city name New York New Jersey - may imply, there doesn't seem to be much partnership between the two entities when funding the world's largest sporting spectacle.
..... The agreement - signed by New Jersey and New York city officials in November [2025] and obtained in April by NorthJersey.com and The Record - says New Jersey will likely not be reimbursed by New York City for the more than $307 million it has invested in the tournament since 2021.
..... New York officials have not shied away from claiming the tournament, even though it has been billed officially as a collaboration between one of the biggest cities in the world and its oft-overlooked neighbor across the river.
..... "When you have a partnership with a river in between, it tests whether that partnership can be really fluid and functional, and this one between the state of New Jersey and the city of New York has been flawless - literally flawless," former Governor Phil Murphy said in 2024 after the region was picked to host the final.
..... The partnership document, tittled a "support and collaboration agreement," was signed on November 5, 2025, by the regional host committee, New York City and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition authority, the government agency tasked with overseeing the Meadowlands complex in east Rutherford, where the stadium is.
..... The document is the only available record of the hosting arrangement that offers some definition about how New Jersey and New York City will fund operations for the tournament. Those operations include a loan for the host committee, as well as payments for engineers and contractors to build new infrastructure and change the layout of MetLife Stadium to comply with the standards of FIFA, the soccer organization that organizes the tournament.
..... The agreement spells out that the host committee, the city and the NJSEA wanted to enter the agreement to "further define their respective roles, responsibilities, obligations, and allocation of certain costs with respect to the hosting and staging of games as part of the FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament."
..... It also says the host committee is responsible for "securing funding" for the tournament, while New York City and New Jersey are required to "provide and bear the costs for certain service" such as police, fire and medical s3revice operations, waste management, public transportation, city beautification and other related government and public services.
..... Notably, the agreement spells out that the host committee will not reimburse the city or state for these public services and that there is nothing in the agreement that would "limit or restrict' the host committee form asking the city or state for more money but that it will"take commercially reasonably steps to identify appropriate opportunities to reduce costs and promote savings."
..... The agreement was signed by Camille Joseph Varlack, a deputy mayor and chief of staff for then New York City Mayor Eric Adams; Nicholas Mammano, Murphy's appointed president at the NJSEA; and Alex Lasry, the CEO of the regional host committee on behalf of both of their nonprofit entities.
..... A request for comment to the office of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani went unanswered, through he did hold an event Monday [04/27/2026] with New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Lasry to promote free fan events in the city's five boughs during the tournament.

What is New York's role?

..... The NJSEA and the city are the two government entities involved in the contractual process with FIFA. They eyer listed as the "New Jersey Host city Authority" and the "Host City authority," respectively, in the contract first signed in 2018 and in subsequent updates.
..... So where is New York in all of this?
..... In 2023, Amaris Cockfield, a spokesperson for Adams, said, "New York city has acknowledged its continued cooperation with NJSEA and the state of New Jersey in the shared commitment of hosting the 2026 FIFA world Cup."
..... Brian Aberback, a spokesperson for the NJSEA, said in a statement in April 2024 that New Jersey and New York City teamed up to "ensure the largest sporting event in FIFA World Cup history would also be the most successful" and that both the city and NJSEA have obligations to meet.
.....In a resolution approved by the authority's board, New York "agreed to share equally with the NJSEA and the state of New Jersey in the overall costs incurred as part of the effort to fulfill the shared goal of hosting the FIFA World Cup 2026."
..... work to bring the tournament to New Jersey has been underway for the better part of a decade. The effort began in 2017, after a delay caused by the infamous 2015 FIFA corruption case over the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to Russia and Qatar.

Where does Sherrill stand?

..... Governor Mikie Sherrill has taken a few steps to alleviate the tournament's cost burden being shoulder by New Jersey taxpayers.
..... Ticket holders will have only a few options for getting to the stadium, and they won't be cheap. Special train tickets will come with a cost of $150, which is drawing complaints from critics. Sherrill noted that the plan her administration "inherited" would cost the transit agency upward of $48 million to move fans, and that she wasn't about to let the state's residents and commuters subsidize an international organization projected to rake in $11 billion from the tournament.
..... She also has expressed support for a limited sales tax increase in the Meadowlands area geared toward recouping some of the money already spent and to cover the cost of security - which is still unknown, because the matches haven't happens and therefore police haven't been paid an to be there yet.
..... Sherrill spokespersons Maggie Garbarino said in a statement that the administration's "top priority" is making suer the state's infrastructure can support the influx of fans "while mitigating disruption to our residents."
..... "While we are navigating the agreement we inherited, Governor Sherrill has been clear that NJ Transit regular commuters will not bare the cost of hosing for years to come," Garbarino said.

..... Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. email: sobko@northjersey.com

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