Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner for mayor of New York City, said on Thursday that he would install a “World Cup czar” to make sure that the city benefits from hosting the global soccer event with New Jersey next summer.
Mr. Mamdani said that visits to New York by foreign travelers have fallen, blaming President Trump’s policies for the decline.
“Hotels report vacant rooms,” Mr. Mamdani said at an event with business leaders in Manhattan. “Landmarks like the Empire State Building sometimes don’t even have a line. The World Cup offers us the perfect chance to rewrite this narrative.”
Mr. Mamdani was clearly in his element. He mentioned his lifelong love for the sport (he was on his high school team and is a huge fan of the English team Arsenal), and name-dropped an Arsenal star player, Declan Rice, and Timothy Weah, an American player from New York.
Last month, Mr. Mamdani called for FIFA to abandon dynamic pricing for the 2026 World Cup to make tickets more affordable. On Thursday, he said that the event also had the potential to benefit “every corner of our city.”
Mr. Mamdani has a strong lead in the polls ahead of the Nov. 4 election. If he wins, hosting the soccer tournament with New Jersey would be one of the first international events he would navigate.
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