NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
President Donald Trump has threatened to take the World Cup out of the New England region if Boston’s Democratic mayor, Michelle Wu, did not crack down on crime.
Well, no threat has yet been made to the New York area, which will host the final on July 19, 2026, and New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, whom Trump once called a “communist maniac,” told Martha MacCallum on Wednesday that he would welcome Trump and his soccer-loving son, Barron, to MetLife Stadium.
Trump attended the Club World Cup final at the New Jersey stadium back in July.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON Pakinomist
Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic mayoral primary debate at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Center studios in New York on June 4, 2025. (YUKI IWAMURA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Last month, Mamdani announced that he wanted to appoint a czar for the Games in East Rutherford, NJ, and in a conversation with MacCallum, he outlined the czar’s role and how it would be a huge win, not just for tourists, but for New Yorkers.
“The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world and it’s like no one has thought or talked about it in New York City government. It’s coming to the city next summer, we’re going to have billions of people watching,” he said. “The World Cup czar is going to make sure that this is a tournament that New Yorkers also remember, not just those who visit us. That it is a tournament that will mean an increase not only in tourism, but in small businesses and in the exploration of this city.
“For far too long we’ve had these kinds of opportunities that we’ve just abandoned. We recently had the 400th anniversary of New York City — most people have no idea because the city didn’t do anything about it.”
Last month, Mamdani called out dynamic pricing for the World Cup, calling “$6,000” tickets “absurd.”
MetLife Stadium displays a soccer match attendance record of 82,262 during a water break during the United States summer friendly between Arsenal and Manchester United at MetLife Stadium on July 22, 2023 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)
BOSTON’S MAYOR RESPONDS TO TRUMP’S THREATS TO PULL WORLD CITY OUT OF CITY WITH SECURITY PROTECTIONS
“What we’re seeing is that FIFA’s approach to the ticketing process for the World Cup is both unprecedented in their own administration of past World Cups and also an approach that will price so many New Yorkers out of actually being in the stands,” he said on “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”
Mamdani recently called for 15% of tickets to be set aside at discounted prices for residents and asked FIFA, soccer’s governing body, to reverse a plan to set ticket prices based on demand.
New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Wednesday interview on Pakinomist’ The Story with Martha MacCallum, discussing the Gaza ceasefire and saying he would uphold an International Criminal Court warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Pakinomist)
Tickets start at $60 for group stage matches and rise to $6,730 for the final, officials said earlier in September. However, pricing may fluctuate under the demand-based pricing model.
