The World Cup transportation panel took place at the FanDuel Sportsbook & Lounge at Meadowlands Racetrack — a spot within eyesight of MetLife Stadium and seemingly a perfect drop-off point for a 2026 World Cup match.
Or is it?
Transportation leaders at the event described Uber and Lyft as risky if fans treat them as their default option for getting to the event.
“I’m afraid that folks are going to almost romanticize rideshare,” New Jersey Turnpike Authority Chief Operating Officer Stephen Dilts said. “I don’t want to take a train, I’m going to take an Uber, it’ll be great.”
Dilts put it bluntly: “It is going to be a slog.”
Security measures and road closures around the stadium will significantly affect travel times — not to mention where riders can actually be dropped off and picked up.
And then there’s the pricing.
“How much is an Uber going to cost?” Dilts asked an audience of more than 100 during a “Good Scouts” event benefiting Scouting America programs.
That sense of uncertainty is why one panelist likened Uber and Lyft to a game show prize.
“Rideshare is like the mystery box with the question mark on ‘The Price is Right’ — you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Chris Feinfeld, the Assistant Commissioner of Operations at the Department of Transportation, said.
“I think there’s a perception of convenience to rideshare. I would go with tried-and-true mass transit.”
Despite the cost: It’s now $98, down from $150, Feinfeld said.
Meadowlands Chamber CEO Jim Kirkos agreed.
And he noted that behind that message is a simple reality about capacity.
Kirkos pointed back to the transportation challenges following the 2014 Super Bowl when urging fans to use transit.
The problem back then wasn’t a system failure, Kirkos said, but a failure to accurately estimate how many people would use NJ Transit.
That mistake could repeat itself, he warned.
If too many fans chase the perceived comfort of rideshare into a limited road network, they may end up paying more to sit longer in the same traffic the World Cup plan is trying to avoid.
Oh, and if you think just walking is a better idea. NJ Transit and N.J. Turnpike Authority already has made it clear that such an idea isn’t smart or safe.
