New York officials are hoping for another four-game sweep by the New York Knicks in this year’s NBA Finals to avoid a clash with a World Cup group stage match at MetLife Stadium.
Should the series between the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs reach a Game 6, that match will tip off on June 16 at 8:30 p.m. at Madison Square Garden, which sits above Penn Station. The World Cup match between France and Senegal begins five-and-a-half hours earlier that day at 3 p.m., with thousands expected to use that same station to get to the Meadowlands.
“I want to make very clear that we are hoping for a sweep,” city mayor Zohran Mamdani said. “We are preparing for anything, because that is our job as New York City government, to ensure that any eventuality is one that we are ready for.”
Mamdani addressed reporters alongside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, speaking from the MTA Rail Control Center in Manhattan on Thursday. They outlined the city’s plans for the World Cup, which begins next week, with their biggest takeaway being for fans to use public transit.
“We can handle this. We’ve got this,” Hochul said. “This is what we do best, and for those who are saying, ‘stay home from work’ — no. Come to the city. Celebrate. Otherwise, you’re missing the excitement and the energy.”
From installing 33,000 new cameras in subway cars to increasing the numbers of buses and trains traveling across the city and to New Jersey, city officials have spent the last month outlining a plan as well as contingency plans for the 39-day tournament.
“Each match day, roughly 100,000 people take our trains and buses out to World Cup events,” Hochul said. “But (while) 100,000 is nice, we handle six million riders a day, so this is something that is absolutely within our control, because we know how to deal with the volume.”
To accommodate the thousands of fans heading to East Rutherford across eight match days, there will be a series of street closures around the city with altered bus routes in Midtown.
Officials are also suspending construction and truck deliveries on match days to limit congestion on city streets. They advise that the city will be under grid lock alerts on each of those days. Simply put, officials recommend that travelers avoid driving into Manhattan at all costs.
However, if you are a New Jersey-based Knicks fan, you will have to be prepared come June 16.
The Knicks beat the Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals in San Antonio on Wednesday. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
New Jersey Transit, which operates the trains that shuffle commuters daily from Manhattan to the Garden State, recently unveiled its World Cup transit plans. When matches are happening at MetLife, only World Cup ticket holders will have access to NJ Transit’s portion of Penn Station for about four hours before and three hours after each game.
Mamdani remained confident the city will be capable of handling any overlap between World Cup congestion and other major events in the city. He pointed to how the first match at MetLife on June 13 — between Morocco and Brazil — would coincide with a possible Game 5 for the NBA Finals. That match would be in San Antonio. However, fans flock to MSG on game days even when the Knicks are away. There is also a 5 Seconds of Summer pop concert happening that evening at the venue.
MetLife Stadium will host Senegal against France on June 16. (ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images)
“The city is working with partners to ensure that match goers, concert goers, Knicks fans can all move safely and securely around to celebrate that event,” Mamdani said, later acknowledging the rarity of the moment.
“If you would have told a New Yorker a year ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, that we could be hosting the World Cup right here, as we also see the Knicks have the first chance to win a championship since our last chance in 1999 against the same team, to run it back with a very different result. This is the opportunity that we’re all here for, and we’re incredibly excited for it.”
Hochul added: “We know how to do our jobs. Everybody has a role to play to make sure this is successful. We also ask for the public to be patient. You will see more traffic, and maybe some more delays, and some frustration, but try to turn that into a sense of celebration.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article included a reference to a Front Office Sports report that New Jersey Transit would not change its proposed plans for the NBA Finals. A NJ Transit spokesperson disputed that report to The Athletic, and the reference has been deleted from the article.
