NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Sky-high ticket prices won’t be the only thing emptying the wallets of soccer fans attending World Cup matches at some U.S. venues this spring.
Fans trying to get to MetLife Stadium from New York City can expect to shell out $150 for a round-trip train fare for each match, transportation officials confirmed Friday.
That’s nearly 12 times the regular $12.90 fare for the roughly 15-minute, 9-mile (14-kilometer) ride from Manhattan’s Penn Station to the stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. On-site parking won’t be available for most fans, so New Jersey officials anticipate that around 40,000 fans will use mass transit for each match.
The home stadium for both the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets is set to host eight World Cup matches, including the tournament final on July 19. Group stage matches for soccer powerhouses Brazil, France, Germany and England, along with other nations, begin June 13.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill has suggested the upcharge was necessary to ensure that her state’s commuters weren’t stuck with a “tab for years to come” for hosting the World Cup on its return to the U.S. for the first time since 1994.
NJ Transit officials said it would cost $62 million to transport fans to and from the stadium over the duration of the tournament, and that outside grants had defrayed only $14 million of those anticipated expenses.
Charging $150 to each of the estimated 40,000 fans expected to take the rails before each game essentially offsets the Garden State’s projected $48 million transit bill, according to NJ Transit President and CEO Kris Kolluri.
“This isn’t price gouging,” he told reporters Friday. “We’re literally trying to recoup our costs.”
Taking public transit to World Cup matches in Boston's suburbs will also be costly.
Express buses from various locations to Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots, will cost $95, officials announced this week.
And thousands of fans have already snapped up $80 round-trip train tickets from Boston to the commuter rail station near the stadium. That’s four times the $20 riders are normally charged for a round-trip ticket during game days and other special events. Unlike MetLife, Gillette isn’t a short hop from downtown. The stadium is located in Foxborough, a town some 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Boston.
Other World Cup host cities have pledged to keep their transit fares unchanged, noting that the U.S. government has provided some $100 million in transit grants to host cities to provide enhanced bus and rail service.
In Los Angeles, one-way fares will remain $1.75; in Atlanta, they’re locked at $2.50; in Houston, a single ride will still cost $1.25 and in Philadelphia the base fare for the subway will remain $2.90.
Kansas City is running shuttles from locations around the city to Arrowhead Stadium that cost just $15 roundtrip. It’s also offering a free bus from the airport to downtown.
Kolluri said the fundamental difference with some of those cities is that their stadiums are located within city limits with more transit options than MetLife’s more suburban surroundings.
New Jersey’s governor, a Democrat who took office in January, said her administration also inherited an agreement where FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, contributed “$0 for transportation” while leaving the state’s perpetually cash-strapped transit agency “stuck with a $48 million bill.”
“As I have said repeatedly, FIFA should cover the cost of transporting its fans,” Sherrill said Friday. “If it won’t, we will not be subsidizing World Cup ticket holders on the backs of New Jerseyans who rely on NJ TRANSIT every day.”
FIFA has bristled at the suggestion, noting that the agreements signed with World Cup host cities back in 2018 called for free transportation for fans to all matches. It also argued that no other major event held at MetLife has been required to pay for fan transportation.
“We are quite surprised by the NJ Governor’s approach today on fan transportation,” the organization said in a statement Thursday, as news reports of the reported fare began to circulate. “FIFA worked for years with host cities on transportation and mobility plans, including advocating for millions of dollars in federal funding to support host cities for transportation.”
The huge increase in the fare to MetLife also drew an objection from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“Charging over $100 for a short train ride sounds awfully high to me,” the Democrat posted on X earlier this week. The surge pricing was first reported by sports outlet The Athletic.
Alternatives to taking the train to MetLife Stadium will be almost as pricey.
A shuttle bus fleet with a capacity for about 10,000 riders will set off from the midtown Manhattan bus terminal and other locations for $80 roundtrip. Some 5,000 parking spots at the nearby American Dream Mall are also being sold in advance, currently priced at $225.
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Associated Press reporter Mark Long in Gainesville, Florida, contributed to this story.
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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo
FILE - An NJ Transit train leaves the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
FILE - PSG fans cheer before the start of the Club World Cup final soccer match between Chelsea and PSG in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)
FILE - Fans play with a ball outside the Metlife Stadium prior to the Club World Cup final soccer match between Chelsea and PSG in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — A steep drop yanked oil prices back to where they were in the early days of the Iran war, and U.S. stocks raced toward another record Friday after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is open again for commercial tankers carrying crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.
The S&P 500 leaped 1.1% as Wall Street rallied toward the finish of a third straight week of big gains, its longest streak since Halloween. A freer flow of oil could take pressure off prices not only for gasoline but also for groceries and all kinds of other products that get moved by vehicles. It could even ultimately help people pay less on credit-card interest and mortgage bills.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged as many as 1,100 points before paring its gain to 872, or 1.8%. The Nasdaq composite was 1.3% higher, with an hour remaining in trading.
The U.S. stock market has jumped more than 12% since hitting a bottom in late March on hopes the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy despite their war. Friday’s reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which may only be temporary, is the clearest signal yet for optimism, and President Donald Trump said late Thursday that the war “should be ending pretty soon.”
The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude plunged immediately after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, posted on X that passage for all commercial vessels through the strait “is declared completely open” as a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon. He said it would stay open for the remaining period of the ceasefire, and U.S. oil dropped 9.4% to settle at $82.59 per barrel.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 9.1% to settle at $90.38 per barrel. To be sure, it remains above its $70 price from before the war, indicating some caution is still embedded in financial markets.
Several times since the war began, optimism on Wall Street has quickly swung to doubt about a possible end to the fighting. That in turn has caused vicious and sudden swings of prices for everything from stocks to bonds to oil.
Minutes after the Iranian foreign minister’s announcement of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said on his social media network that the U.S. Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports remains “in full force” until both sides reach a deal on the war. He, though, also suggested that “should go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated” and emphasized it by using all capital letters.
Companies with big fuel bills soared to some of Wall Street’s biggest gains following the easing of oil prices.
United Airlines soared 7%. A day earlier, the head of the International Energy Agency had said that Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of remaining jet fuel supplies.
Operators of cruise ships, which guzzle fuel, also steamed higher. Norwegian Cruise Line jumped 6.1%, and Royal Caribbean Group gained 7.9%.
Housing and auto-related companies likewise got some relief from the drop in oil prices.
With less threat of high inflation hurting the economy, a sustained drop in oil prices could convince the Federal Reserve to resume its cuts to interest rates to invigorate the economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.24% from 4.32% late Thursday, and lower yields can bring down rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses.
Builders FirstSource, a supplier of windows and other products, rose 5.6%, and homebuilder Lennar gained 4.4% on hopes that lower mortgage rates will spur more people to buy houses. Carvana climbed 6.6% because lower loan rates can get more customers into new autos.
A strong start to the earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies has also helped support the U.S. stock market, and more financial companies joined the list of companies delivering bigger profits for the start of 2026 than analysts expected.
State Street rose 2.9%, and Fifth Third Bancorp added 1.5% after both reported better results for the latest quarter than expected.
They helped offset a 10.1% slide for Netflix, which fell even though it delivered a better profit than expected. It did not raise its forecast for revenue growth for the full year, which analysts said may have disappointed some investors.
It also said Reed Hastings, cofounder and chairman of the streaming company, will step down from its board of directors in June when his term expires.
In stock markets abroad, stock indexes leaped in Europe following Iran’s announcement about the Strait of Hormuz. France’s CAC 40 jumped 2%, and Germany’s DAX returned 2.3%.
In Asia, where trading finished for the day before the announcement, indexes were weaker. Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.8%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9% for two of the bigger losses.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
