New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city will broadcast World Cup games at hundreds of kiosks spread across its five boroughs to make sports more accessible to ordinary fans, after accessibility was one of the cornerstones of his campaign for office.
A select few matches will be broadcast on the 55-inch LinkNYC digital screens that are located on street corners across the city and typically display public service announcements or messages.
Mamdani negotiated with the NBA to broadcast two games from the league finals on screens this month, in an initiative aimed at allowing New Yorkers without access to open TV or streaming services to watch the New York Knicks break a 53-year drought without titles.
“Whatever infrastructure we have, we should use it to make it easier for people to be part of the game,” Mamdani told Reuters on Thursday.
“We’re going to broadcast some games on hundreds of kiosks across the five boroughs. And it will be an opportunity for New Yorkers to really get swept up in the World Cup, the same way we all got swept up in this incredible Knicks run.”
The website Politico had previously reported that plans for showing the games were being discreetly drawn up.
Tickets for World Cup games are more expensive than ever. The United States hosts the tournament alongside Canada and Mexico, and dynamic pricing has left the matches out of reach for many fans. The minimum price for games in New York/New Jersey and Miami approached US$1,000 (around R$5,100) on the eve of the tournament.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic politician who challenged the political elite and mobilized young voters last year, worked with the New York and New Jersey Organizing Committee to secure 1,000 affordable tickets for New Yorkers to attend the tournament, at US$50 each, with free round-trip bus transportation.
“If we allow sports to become a luxury good, we also allow it to move away from its roots as a form of working-class expression, not just something to participate in, but also something to be a part of,” said Mamdani, who celebrated the Knicks’ victory in a shredded paper parade in midtown Manhattan on Thursday.
“It’s time to really make sure we don’t leave any New Yorker behind when it comes to sports, and we should talk about it in the same context that we talk about the things that people also build their lives around.”
Earlier this month, the city launched a line of football shirts inspired by New York City in celebration of the World Cup. The shirts, made in Brooklyn, were sold at cost, according to GQ magazine, for around US$50 each, compared to the US$130 price of a US shirt sold at a kiosk in a World Cup stadium.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said the initial run of 1,500 T-shirts had sold out and another batch was being produced.
Mamdani watched the first World Cup game at the New York/New Jersey stadium wearing one of these shirts and posted a photo of himself in the cheaper stands with the caption: “One thousand New Yorkers won our giveaway for affordable World Cup tickets. Today, we celebrate the first NY/NJ game of the tournament in the stands. The beautiful game belongs to everyone.”
“We want these tournaments, these moments to be things that are within the reach of workers as well and not just something they’re trying to figure out how to watch on streaming,” said Mamdani, a longtime fan of English Premier League champions Arsenal.
Mamdani’s initiatives have not received universal support. He ended up clashing with James Dolan, owner of his beloved Knicks, earlier this month after Dolan harshly criticized the mayor and local officials for security measures outside Madison Square Garden for the NBA Finals.
Dolan claimed that the security zone around Madison Square Garden, where a game viewing event had initially been planned, had turned the streets into “a police state.”
But as New York’s summer of sports moves into full swing, with six more World Cup games to be played in New York/New Jersey and the US Open of golf starting this Thursday in neighboring Southampton, experts say Mamdani’s eye for grassroots politics will resonate with many.
“Traditionally, sports were not seen as serious,” said Lee Igel, a professor at New York University’s Tisch Institute for Sports. “So if you’re in political office or you’re elected and you start talking about it, come on, it’s rent, right? It’s your daily bread.”
“You see, anywhere in the world, sports are important to people,” Igel said, adding that Mamdani “understands the platform, the power of sports.”
