Enough with the outrage around the $150 NJ Transit ticket to get to a World Cup match
at MetLife Stadium. Or the suggestion that FIFA needs to subsidize the cost.
Yes, $150 for a short train ride sounds outrageous. On its face, it should raise
eyebrows. But in this case …
The price is right.
The price is fair.
Most of all, the price will be mostly paid by non-New Jersey residents.
Let’s break it down.
The price is right: Kris Kolluri, the CEO of NJ Transit, knows how much the extra
security and extra manpower on the ground to make thing run smoothly will cost: About
$6 million a game after all federal subsidies are added. He knows it because it’s the
cost NJ Transit incurred last summer during the Club World Cup, when NJ Transit did
not come up with a special soccer rate, and NJ Transit ended up subsidizing the
difference. And, if anything, the cost may be higher as the need for even more security
and more language specialists will be greater this summer.
The price is fair: Tickets for those lucky enough to get them in the lottery often
approached $1,000. Tickets on the secondary market are going for much more than
that. Keep in mind, no one is required to attend a World Cup match — it’s an optional,
premium event generating extraordinary logistical costs. If you have a lot of money or a
lot of passion for the sport, the extra $150 for a train ticket likely will not be enough to
make you think twice about going. Neither, we’re guessing, will the concession prices.
The price is being paid by non-New Jersey residents: Final figures are not out, but
the early data shows the super majority of those with tickets to games at MetLife
Stadium are from out of state or out of the country. And they’ll be coming from New
York City, meaning much of their discretionary dollars will be spent elsewhere. New
Jersey has a history of picking up costs while NYC picks up the revenue at big events.
This changes that dynamic.
As for FIFA picking up the cost? That’s not going to happen. Nor should it. Yes, FIFA
will make tons of money. But so will the state — not to mention the free international
branding.
But still: $150 for a short trip?
Kolluri said he understands why the ticket price has created such a controversy. But
he’ll take that over the alternative.
“Imagine if I stood up on Friday and said, ‘We’re excited to have everybody come here
and we are thrilled to announce that all tickets will be the same price and that New
Jersey commuters are going to pay 92% of the cost,’” he told BINJE.
“People would have said they would have lost their minds — as they should have. This
is the right thing to do.”
Don’t be confused. This isn’t a money grab that often comes during big events. It’s just
a way for NJ Transit to break even during the eight match days. There won’t be an
added cost for the final.
What shouldn’t be lost is this: The prices for NJ Transit tickets on all other days — and
for all other locations on match day — will stay the same. And Kolluri makes it clear that
NJ Transit is not charging extra for riders to go to all of the various Fan Festivals that
will be around the state.
It’s just on the biggest days — the ones with the most out-of-state riders, who can afford
to pay it.
Kolluri and his team at NJ Transit know what they’re doing. They proved last summer
(at the Club World Cup, at the Taylor Swift and Beyonce concerts) that they know how
to run a railroad during big events.
If they can pull it off this summer, the reputation the region earned for the transportation
meltdown after the Super Bowl in 2014, may finally be gone.
Other big events — the Women’s World Cup final in 2031, another Super Bowl — may
be in our future. And if we are so lucky, these $150 tickets will be a small price to pay.
By somebody else.
