Philly and New York are rivals in sports, but not in World Cup planning

Here’s another way to measure the impact of next year’s World Cup, one you hopefully don’t have to know about soccer to understand.

A lot of people will come to Philadelphia who don’t know it’s a bad idea to wear Giants blue, and a lot of people will go to New York who don’t know it’s a bad idea to wear Eagles green.

All they’ll know when they arrive from somewhere else is that Lincoln Financial Field and MetLife Stadium are the closest stadiums to each other of any of the tournament’s 16 venues. A map will show that the stadiums are about a two-hour drive apart, and a train schedule will show it’s faster than that from Manhattan to 30th Street.

Then they’ll see that there will be six games in South Philadelphia and eight in North Jersey, and two big airports nearby. So they might decide to stay in one city and commute to the other, and perhaps on to more host cities. The four other eastern ones — Boston (officially Foxborough), Toronto, Atlanta, and Miami — will host 29 games combined.

That’s why the Philadelphia and New York/New Jersey local organizing groups have put their homes’ eternal rivalries aside to work together. They knew from the start that they had to, and have kept at it all along.

When Alex Lasry became the New York/New Jersey host committee’s CEO in February, he made Meg Kane, host city executive for Philadelphia’s World Cup organizing committee, one of his first calls.

“We’ve been in close contact,” Lasry said. “Meg has been someone that since I’ve come on, I’ve taken to asking [for] all sorts of advice, just on how they’re doing things, what we could do. Trying to take the things that they’re doing really well, and trying to bring that over to what we’re doing.”

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Kane returned the compliment.

“Philadelphia Soccer 2026 had a long-standing working relationship with the New York/New Jersey host committee since the day we were selected,” she said. “Alex and I have had several conversations already. He’s been a great working partner.”

Nowhere is that more evident than in transportation. International travelers to World Cups are used to taking trains to stadiums, not cars. That’s why Philadelphia organizers have made SEPTA a key talking point in their work. While locals in town might not like the Broad Street Line, its straight shot from Center City to Lincoln Financial Field is a key reason FIFA picked the city.

Lasry has put the same emphasis on NJ Transit, which runs a shuttle line to the Meadowlands, and New York’s MTA. He’s deep in the details of planning ride-hailing spots. And everyone has leaned on federal officials about Amtrak, seen as a key connector of the two metropolises.

“For Jets [and] Giants games, you’ve got people who generally know how to get there, and who are used to the transportation network,” he said. “For the World Cup, you’re going to have people from all over the world, people who don’t speak English, who have never used our transportation system before, who are all going to need to learn how to use it.”

» READ MORE: What proposed SEPTA cuts would mean for Philly fans heading to games — and why the pro teams share ‘deep concerns’

If that’s still not enough, Lasry put it in terms that a non-sports fan might understand, especially one from the Philly area.

“This is going to be way bigger than Taylor Swift,” he said, “and that was probably the thing that was overrunning a lot of stadiums and cities before.”

It certainly did at the Linc, where over 200,000 fans packed the stands across three days of her 2023 Eras tour — and some 60,000 more just hung out in the parking lots. MetLife Stadium’s three-day attendance a few weeks later was officially 217,625, a record total for such a span.

“There are going to be people from all over the East Coast that are going to be based somewhere else, and coming in maybe for just one match,” Lasry said. “There are going to be people who are going to come in who aren’t going to even set foot in MetLife Stadium, just going to come to be a part of the game. And I think that’s something that we’ve really been pushing to explain.”

Kane emphasized the role that Philadelphia in particular can play leading up to MetLife Stadium’s hosting of the World Cup final.

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“Philadelphia offers a unique value proposition to the fans of so many teams, [including] for the two teams that will qualify for the final,” she said. “Because of our Fan Fest being open through the end of the tournament, [and] the fact that Philadelphia, from a cost perspective, may be more cost-effective for fans to stay [in] and to be part of that celebration. And certainly, it can be easier to access MetLife Stadium from the south than it is to come through the tunnels in New York.”

If that gives away some of the city’s favorite secrets about living here, this is a moment to do it. A World Cup is all hands on deck.

“FIFA was, I think during, our bidding period, not necessarily aware of how close the proximity was,” Kane said, recalling a trip to the top of the Linc where she pointed east across the Delaware River. “I think now they see the opportunity for sure. We continue to position this as an opportunity, and we encourage FIFA to use and leverage Philadelphia as a support system to the final.”

Lasry has his own Philly bona fides: He’s a Penn alum, and his undergrad days included playing for the junior varsity basketball team. His father Marc, a former co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, is also no stranger to the school, co-funding two endowed professorships with his wife.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia unveils its official 2026 World Cup poster, with help from the Flower Show

Perhaps Lasry and Kane, a La Salle grad, could take in next season’s Big 5 Classic with Philadelphia host committee chair and devoted St. Joseph’s fan Dan Hilferty. But for now, there’s too much to do in the day job, and that won’t change any time soon.

“I think people understand that this is a huge deal,” Lasry said, “and it’s on us to kind of really illustrate that this is going to be the biggest sports and entertainment event that’s ever hit the United States.”