The basics:

• Author says NJ Transit tested transit strategies at 2025 Club World Cup
• “Metering” fans and combined bus-train service proved effective
• Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce committee considers businesses’ proposals
• Public-private partnerships aim to ease 2026 World Cup congestion

In Part 1 of this op-ed, I addressed the many issues facing government, business and soccer fans about traffic and parking at the 2026 World Cup that will fill MetLife Stadium to its approximate capacity of 82,500 fans. In this Part 2, I will show that there is light at the end of the tunnel; in short, we don’t have many problems and solutions are in process.

Since part 1 of this op-ed appeared, New Jersey Transit reached out to us and granted us an interview with CEO Kris Kolluri and Senior Vice President Anthony Grieco. Their input on World Cup 2026 demonstrates that NJT is optimistic that transportation issues will be efficiently handled at the World Cup next year. And others in the Meadowlands business community have offered additional solutions.

NJT recognizes that the Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium in 2014 was not a transportation success, and it has had to live with the echoes of that experience since then. But NJT quickly added that the 2014 experience and its success with large concerts (like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran) and with NFL games since then have provided a laboratory for improvements.

For example, several years ago NJT sponsored an Expo at MetLife Stadium, to which it invited a large number of consultants and experts in traffic management and parking solutions. NJT collected a number of suggestions for long-term solutions to Sports Complex traffic management and parking. In the short run, New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner Francis O’Connor is planning to address full mobility over this summer.

NJT used the recent 2025 Club World Cup games as one of its laboratories. These games enabled the agency to understand the movement of people at World Cup events and how NJT equipment can operate with the large crowds expected in 2026. For example, a combination of train and bus service for the 2025 World Cup games allowed NJT to serve approximately 21,000 fans without delays following the final match — with the one exception at the conclusion of a quarter-final match being a challenge that NJT overcame in 15 minutes: an engine issue on a locomotive just prior to departing Meadowlands Station. With train and bus service operating together this experience has found its way into NJT’s playbook for 2026.

Another addition to the NJT playbook is what it calls “metering” transit patrons, a solution used by other FIFA host cities. It involves how fans actually access transportation. For example, at the 2025 Club event, fans of the losing team exited first, while fans of the winning team stayed for the post-game ceremonies. This allowed NJT to serve transit customers in layers, a more efficient way to move people. And NJT has been, and continues, working with FIFA and the local 2026 Host Committee on this and other solutions. And their joint planning will continue.

Kolluri candidly pointed out that the agency is fully aware of two things that are out of its control: (1) extreme weather, like a heat wave or violent storms, that would affect transportation, and (2) NJT is a tenant on the Northeast Corridor that is owned and operated by Amtrak; a problem on the Amtrak lines could disrupt NJT train service. NJT can’t control the first, but it is in regular discussions with Amtrak to determine how the two can devise efficient solutions for any contingency on the second.

With all of this recent and ongoing learning, Kolluri says that NJT now has some proven methods to address potential World Cup 2026 issues thanks, in large part, to firsthand observations and experience during the Club World Cup matches.

Meadowlands businesses offer solutions

I wrote about public-private partnerships in Part 1. The CEO of Meadowlands Transportation Brokerage Co., doing business as EZ Ride, Krishna Murthy, and his COO Avnish Gupta already are part of public-private partnerships that serve municipalities, nonprofits, seniors, commuters and schools in the five northern counties of New Jersey. They are not the only ones seeking novel solutions and have suggested the following. This proposal will benefit not only fans, but also businesses whose employees need to access their jobs, especially throughout the Sports Complex; customers seeking to patronize those businesses; and all fans, especially low-income fans requiring access to mass transit. Their proposal for another public-private partnership follows:

NJT already provides bus and train service to the station in Rutherford, just a few miles from MetLife Stadium. In addition, NJT buses also serve Rutherford (bus Nos. 76 and 190) and Lyndhurst, another locality just a short hop from MetLife Stadium. The Rutherford bus stop is located at Rutherford and Polito Avenues in Lyndhurst. Several bus lines service at that station. Those taking advantage of these mass transit opportunities can then meet shuttles (provided by EZ Ride) that will take fans to and from MetLife Stadium and to the American Dream Mall, just a short walk over a pedestrian bridge to MetLife Stadium. Communities with NJ Transit bus connections to these stops include Newark, Hackensack, Paterson, Wayne, Clifton, Kearny and North Arlington.

Another creative suggestion came our way: Because parts of the Meadowlands are wetlands, one local business suggested erecting the same pontoon bridges that transport heavy military equipment in similar environments – surely they can take on new pedestrian traffic if their normal load is heavy military vehicles. In other words, approach the World Cup like a military operation.

The Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of Chair James Kirkos, has formed an active World Cup Committee. Members include businesses with the same concerns as fans employers and employees. The World Cup Committee has been considering these proposals:

• Using local hotels, the Secaucus Edison lot, and the Garden State Plaza as designated rideshare lots, perhaps with dedicated lanes to and from MetLife Stadium on game days.
• Michelle Petelicki, an active member of the Meadowlands World Cup Committee and president of Panorama Bus Co. in Wallington, is a vocal advocate of public-private partnerships and is seeking solutions that her company – located just miles from MetLife Stadium – can offer to ease the traffic and parking issues.
• And it merits mention that all transportation companies involved in these discussions are considering how to offer their services on a cost-effective (read, inexpensive) way.
• Hackensack Meridian Health already has agreed to host a remote site at its medical school along Route 3 (at ON3, the prior Roche complex).
• The Meadowlands Chamber is also working on other sites for rideshare and mass transit.
• Redds, a local restaurant, already has established bus service to and from MetLife Stadium and could be recruited to do the same for the World Cup games.
• There are pedestrian bridges across Route 120, connecting American Dream to MetLife Stadium. Moving quickly, authorities could widen those bridges to allow great numbers of people to cross the highway; as well as using shoulder lanes on highways for buses, shuttles and rideshare vehicles.
• The Meadowlands Chamber is also hosting information sessions for local industry to develop other solutions, and plans to convene local hotels to develop a plan.
• Experience with the PGA tournament at Baltusrol also provides a potential model to emulate for handling the large numbers of fans seeking to attend the soccer matches.

The Meadowlands Chamber World Cup Committee also reports that the World Cup Host committee has hired a transportation engineering firm to develop plans and solutions.

No doubt a lot of the ideation, proposals and suggestions will cost money – a major obstacle. But recent announcements from Gov. Phil Murphy indicate that New Jersey is behind the effort to make the 2026 World Cup a world-class experience. (See “As FIFA Club World Cup wraps, Phil Murphy is ‘Highly Optimistic’ for 2026 FIFA World Cup,” a story by Katie Sobko, for NorthJersey.com, July 9, 2025.)

NJT, as an arm of the State of New Jersey, remains in active discussions with a prominent seat at the table with high level New Jersey officials to help secure the financing that is so necessary to achieving a successful World Cup experience. As Kollurri has said, if NJT is given the ability to maintain control over the decisions related to its transportation plan (and, presumably, to implement them) “we will be just fine.” In fact, he points out that a poll conducted by Farleigh Dickinson University July 29, demonstrates that NJT’s grades have risen significantly from prior polls.

Enjoy the Word Cup games and look into transportation alternatives before you travel.

William J. Heller is of counsel at Genova Burns and a former senior vice president and general counsel of the New York Football Giants. As noted in Part 1, SUPER BOWL® is a registered trademark of the National Football League and its affiliates. WORLD CUP and FIFA are registered trademarks of Fédération Internationale de Football Association. The author acknowledges their trademark rights in this op-ed.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This opinion piece is part two of a series by its author William J. Heller, the contents of which are the opinion solely of the author. NJBIZ notes that the headline attributed to the first piece of this series represents NJBIZ’s characterization of the opinion and not that of the op-ed’s author.