The recent decision by international soccer officials to hold not just some games but also the World Cup final at MetLife marks a major victory for Murphy, a nationally ambitious Democrat who co-owns a professional female soccer team. But it raises the stakes for one of the two-term governor’s top priorities since taking office: Fixing New Jersey Transit.
Getting people back and forth to MetLife — the New Jersey stadium that’s home to both the New York Jets and the New York Giants — has caused major disasters for NJ Transit in the past. The nation’s third-largest transit system also struggles with ongoing financial uncertainty. It now faces a $1 billion budget deficit next year and has no plan to close the gap, even after
announcing fare hikes this winter.
The stadium — to be renamed New York New Jersey Stadium for the World Cup — is just six miles from Manhattan’s Central Park but may as well be on another planet. It’s surrounded by industrial sites and wetlands that have served as a Hollywood backdrop for generations, most famously in “The Godfather” (
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli”). A spaghetti-like network of highways wraps around the stadium, but there’s just one way in or out by rail, aboard a rail line with limited service and no direct connection to New York City.
People were stranded for hours at the stadium following the
2014 Super Bowl (when the state was met with chants of “Jersey sucks”) and again in 2019,
following the WWE’s WrestleMania 35. It wasn’t all the agency’s fault — WrestleMania ran two hours later than planned, which was especially unexpected for a scripted sport — but the transit agency and the state took the blame.
Now, New Jersey officials will have to ready themselves for repeated crushes of soccer fans when MetLife is to host eight World Cup matches in 2026, including the July 19 final. That likely means Taylor Swift-size crowds for days and the biggest spotlight ever shown on the state of New Jersey: Some 1.5 billion people watched the 2022 World Cup.
Murphy vowed to put the transit agency “on steroids” for the World Cup. He’ll be out of office by then, but what happens will be a test of his legacy on transit issues, an area where he’s
been villainized in recent months. The state has partnered with New York as dual hosts for the soccer tournament.
Faced with immediate questions about whether NJ Transit is up to the job, Murphy and transit officials variously cited successfully handling record-breaking events last summer, including Swift’s tour and other major shows by Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, native son Bruce Springsteen and K-pop band TWICE.
“We look forward to not only delivering a seamless transportation experience for fans from around the globe, but we want everyone to know that the fan experience will begin as soon as they board their NJ TRANSIT train or bus,” said agency CEO Kevin Corbett.
Unlike Swift’s stint, which was over a long weekend when train and bus service could easily be adjusted, the mix of World Cup games to be played at MetLife includes several games in the middle of the week, creating conflict between the demands of visitors from around the world and New Jersey commuters, most of whom head to New York City for work.
Transit was one of the issues that bidders had to sort through when they applied to host games, said Zoe Baldwin, the New Jersey director of the Regional Plan Association, a venerable nonprofit that’s helped shape infrastructure across the New York City region.
“I do have confidence the state is taking this seriously,” Baldwin said. “But I am concerned that the focus on transit will now be for people to go to a special event instead of focusing on the long-term health of…
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