By the time Subho Desai of Edison and his friend finally reached MetLife Stadium — after a seemingly endless wait on the Turnpike, a lengthy search to find a parking lot and a quarter-mile sprint through the parking lot that looked similar to the run patrons make at Disney World when it first opens — they were hit with another unexpected obstacle: Both escalators connected to the upper deck were now going down.
“Unbelievable,” Desai said, shaking his head – before beginning another jog in search of a walkway to his seats.
Unfortunately, the scenario made perfect sense.
Afterall, the quarterfinal of the FIFA Club World Cup match between Real Madrid and Dortmund was approaching the 80th minute. Many fans who had been in the sun-soaked atmosphere for hours already were starting to leave.
Few realized that Desai and a steady stream of others were just arriving.
The good news for those who only got there at the end: The match featured three stoppage-time goals and an incredible save in the closing seconds – providing more than a game’s worth of excitement in approximately 10 minutes of play. (Real Madrid prevailed, 3-2).
The bad news for organizers: Long-standing fear of traffic tie-ups around the 2026 FIFA World Cup is valid. And the potential traffic scenarios for next summer – when MetLife hosts eight games, including the final – are far more complicated and concerning.
To be sure, almost all of the crowd Saturday got there on time. But there was a noticeable surge of others arriving well past the start of the second half. (In fact, this reporter at first thought they had opened the gates with just minutes to go and fans without a ticket were rushing in.)
The reason for the bottleneck wasn’t clear. And most of the late-arriving fans had little time or interest in literal on-the-run interviews on the subject.
“It took us three hours to get here,” one couple said as they raced to the stadium from the outer perimeter.
When asked where they were from, they said: “Jersey City.”
While most had complaints about the Turnpike — “Everything stopped when we got to 16W” – others complained GPS led them to dead ends or closed roads.
Some wondered why the FIFA app or electronic road signs did not offer more information – and why no one was directing traffic.
Luis De La Hoz, the chairman of the Statewide Hispanic Chairman and co-creator of a resource guide meant to help small businesses take advantage of the upcoming global event, was impacted as much as anyone.
De La Hoz, despite adding an extra hour of travel time to get to the 4 p.m. match (he said he left his home in Middlesex County at 2), never got out of his car. He eventually just went home – and even that effort was difficult, as he suddenly was caught in a surge of cars leaving an event he couldn’t get into.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “And I’m worried about how we, as a state, are going to be able to handle this next year – and what impression it will give to the rest of the world about New Jersey.”
Sorting this out won’t be easy.
To be fair, all of the following must be mentioned.
- The great majority of fans arrived on time — there was not a noticeable number of empty seats in the all-but-sold-out venue;
- The game started on time; it did not need to be delayed to allow more fans to arrive, as was the case last summer for a major soccer final in Miami;
- There were no issues with NJ Transit, which organizers have longed pushed as the best way to get to the matches;
- Met Life Stadium has handled dozens of major soccer matches in the past without such an incident — including last summer’s COPA America Tournament, which featured two matches involving Argentina and Messi;
- There were no such traffic complaints at recent mega concerts involving Beyonce and Taylor Swift.
That being said, the complaints were of a greater volume than normal. A spokesperson from the governor’s office confirmed they had received more reports than usual.
Steve Schapiro, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, which maintains Route 3, Route 120 and Route 17 (but not the Turnpike), said a number of factors may have caused delays. The biggest: An overwhelming number of fans drove to the game, arriving in the final 90 minutes.
This – and a serious accident on Route 3 (which took 40 minutes to clear) – impacted those driving.
Schapiro noted that the DOT has additional flatbed trucks and maintenance staff on duty for the Club World Cup games to assist in clearing any incidents as quickly as possible and is working with the N.J. State Police incident command structure.
In addition, state officials are continuing to strongly encourage fans to take public transportation.
Those habits may need to change quickly. MetLife will host semifinals on Tuesday and Wednesday – and the final on Sunday.
The semifinal matches will present an added twist: The matches will begin at 3 p.m., meaning they will conclude around rush hour in a region that already is overwhelmed with cars.
And while it’s logical to say that the coming week will be a test run for the 2026 World Cup, even that analogy has challenges.
The match Saturday appeared to draw a regional crowd. There were plenty of license plates from New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut — fans who have cars and are not accustomed to mass transit in Northern New Jersey.
And while the World Cup will draw thousands of international (who don’t figure to have cars and will be forced to use mass transit), it also will draw thousands of dignitaries who will be expecting to be driven there — including thousands of FIFA officials from around the world and international leaders. President Trump is expected to come for the final.
And don’t forget about the sponsors who will have paid multiple millions to support the event and certainly are expecting access to the games as a perk.
How will all of this be handled?
There has been talk about closing some roads or individual lanes, so these VIPs will have unencumbered access. But this only begs the question: Which roads — which lanes?
And doing so has the potential to create another PR nightmare: Imagine being unable to get to a once-in-a-lifetime World Cup match but having to sit in your car and watch others zip past in some sort of fast-pass fashion?
Desai and his friend didn’t have time to ponder those scenarios. They just wanted to get something for the few hundred dollars they had spent on tickets.
“We don’t have time to talk,” he said, racing away.
Here’s hoping they saw the late goals.
