Twenty-four hours before the World Cup final, New Jersey was dealing with tornado threat levels, flash flood warnings, microbursts and heat waves — the kind of day that snarls a normal Tuesday, let alone the biggest event the state has ever hosted. By Sunday, Gov. Mikie Sherrill was standing in front of MetLife Stadium making the case that New Jersey had, once again, threaded the needle.
Crews cleared the tracks. Emergency management, already staffed up for the tournament, brought in more people specifically because of the storm damage. And by the time the final kicked off, Sherrill said, it was “a perfect day.”
She was right. The conditions for the final may have been the nicest of the tournament — a fitting cap to an event that showed the state can show up and show out on the biggest stage.
That doesn’t mean it was easy.
Sherrill, in a pre-final presser, broke down how the state handled an event whose final was watched by an estimated 3 billion people worldwide:
Security: Sherrill said the state has been running continuous dark-web monitoring out of what she called “the Intel Center,” a hub stood up after 9/11. “We were always monitoring the dark web … to make sure we had as much intelligence as possible coming into the state,” she said.
Transit: Sherrill credited NJ Transit with what she called the best rail experience of any World Cup host city — a claim she acknowledged came with some bias — and said the stadium cleared faster after the final than it does after Jets or Giants games.
Statewide reach: Pairing MetLife with Philadelphia’s host role, Sherrill said New Jersey turned the tournament into a statewide event — something she said no other host state managed.
Economic impact: The governor noted the approximately three dozen fan zones built across the state, drawing roughly 130,000 people as of a few weeks before the final, by her count. And that doesn’t include all the unofficial parties.
“I wanted to make sure small businesses, restaurants, bars, Airbnb … could make some money at every turn on this event,” she said.
American Dream: It served as the ultimate unofficial fan fest. Sherrill said it played an important part of the event from start to finish, she said.
Global pitch: The final drew CEOs, consuls general, ambassadors and heads of state to MetLife. Sherrill said she used the access to set up follow-on meetings aimed at steering investment into New Jersey.
The day after: As she readied to go into MetLife Stadium Sunday for the final, Sherrill admitted she is looking forward to Monday — or the day when the eyes of the soccer world turn to Spain, Portugal and Morocco, which will host the 2030 World Cup.
“It’s like the wedding is here after you’ve had family in town for a long time,” she said. “I’m ready for the wedding. I’m excited about the day, and then it’ll be nice when we can go back to normal operations.”
