NYC Mayor Mamdani, Gotham FC partner to offer $5 tickets in affordability push
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has extended his campaign of making soccer more affordable by partnering with two-time NWSL Champions Gotham FC. The mayor on Sunday afternoon shared with his 11. 7 million followers across Instagram and Twitter that his administration and Gotham were releasing 1,000 tickets priced at $5 for the club’s May 9 match against Boston Legacy at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
The tickets sold out in less than an hour, a club spokesperson told The Athletic . Standard-priced tickets remain for the match, starting at $22 as of Sunday night. “We’re teaming up with the nation’s two-time champions to make soccer more affordable for everyone,” Mamdani said while wearing Gotham’s third kit in a promotional video announcing the drop.
He concluded, “This is the summer of soccer. Grab your tickets. I’ll see you there.
” Mamdani, a lifelong Arsenal fan who grew up playing the sport, has been a staunch advocate for the game and keeping it affordable since assuming office in January. In the fall, he launched a “Game over Greed” campaign calling on FIFA to commit to not using dynamic pricing for men’s World Cup tickets, to place a cap on resale prices and to set 15 percent of tickets aside for residents at a discount. “As a lifelong soccer fan, I have grown up with memories of the World Cup, whether watching on TV or being there myself,” Mamdani told The Athletic in October.
“I went in 2010 to South Africa. I know what this tournament represents, which is the most popular tournament in the world, and also what it could be, which is a celebration of the world’s game. “Yet these kinds of policies from FIFA are ones that threaten to price out the very people that make this game so special.