FIFA World Cup Kicks Off in Six Days — New York and New Jersey Are Bracing for Up to 100,000 Extra Travelers a Day

The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in less than a week, and if you live in or around New York City or New Jersey — or plan to visit — the region is about to get a whole lot busier.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani held a press conference Thursday to lay out exactly how the city and state plan to handle what's coming. The short version: they've overhauled a massive chunk of the transit system to absorb the surge. Officials are bracing for up to 100,000 extra riders on game days — on top of the roughly 6 million people who already use the MTA every single day.

The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19, with eight matches hosted at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The very first match — Brazil vs. Morocco — kicks off on June 13. The championship final is on July 19, also at that stadium. So this isn't a one-weekend thing. It's a 39-day stretch of elevated pressure on the city's infrastructure.

Here's what's actually changing on match days: 42nd Street gets converted into a bus-only corridor from First Avenue all the way to 12th Avenue. Sixth Avenue gets dedicated bus lanes. Extra subway service is being added on the 1, C, and F lines. Construction and deliveries will be banned in parts of Midtown. And every single match day will be officially declared a "Gridlock Alert Day" — meaning the city is essentially telling drivers to stay home.

Mayor Mamdani put it bluntly: leave your car at home. Walk, bike, or take the subway. He acknowledged that road congestion on game days is inevitable regardless.

For people trying to get to the stadium itself, there's dedicated NJ Transit service from Penn Station, plus shuttle buses departing from three Midtown Manhattan locations. Shuttle bus tickets are $20 round trip — that price was actually lowered after the original cost was higher. NJ Transit's rail option runs $98, and as of now, only about 5.5% of NJ Transit's inventory for the World Cup has been sold.

The timing makes this even more complicated: the New York Knicks are currently playing the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. The Knicks host Games 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden on June 8 and 10 — before the World Cup even starts. But if the series goes to Game 6, it falls on June 16, the exact same day as the World Cup match between France and Senegal at the New Jersey stadium. Two massive events, one city, same day. Officials say they have a plan for that scenario, but it's still a lot to manage.

On the security side, Hochul noted that subway crime is at a 16-year low, and officials detailed both physical police presence and behind-the-scenes cybersecurity work. Counter-drone detection equipment is also being deployed at critical transit infrastructure.

Bottom line: if you're in the New York metro area this summer, plan around match days. Check the schedule (June 13, 16, 22, 25, 27, 30, July 5, and July 19), assume Midtown will be a mess, and lean on public transit. The city has put over a year of planning into this — but 100,000 extra people is still 100,000 extra people.