The Football Supporters Association didn't hold back. "Ludicrously high," they called it. "Exploitation of loyal fans." And honestly, it's hard to argue.
The MBTA is planning to charge World Cup fans somewhere around — or beyond — $75 per person for a return train ticket from Boston South Station to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. That's a 27-mile trip. The same journey costs NFL and MLS fans $20 on a normal event day.
Nearly four times the standard price. For a train.
The pricing already started climbing before the tournament
Fans who attended last Thursday's France vs. Brazil exhibition at Gillette got a preview of what's coming. The MBTA bumped the round-trip fare to $30 — a 50% jump from the usual $20 — with no concessions available and children under 11 required to hold a valid ticket. That felt steep at the time. It turns out it was just a warm-up.
According to sources familiar with the planning, who spoke anonymously to protect their relationships, the $75 figure is being discussed for World Cup matchdays. The MBTA has confirmed it will announce its official fare program by April 8.
The authority's defence is the $35 million it has invested upgrading Foxboro Station ahead of the tournament, including making it fully accessible. They're also promising unprecedented service levels — up to 20,000 riders per match. Those are real commitments, and they cost real money. But there's a difference between recovering costs and pricing out the supporters who travelled across the ocean to be there.
The broader picture for fans attending the 2026 World Cup
This is already shaping up as the most expensive World Cup ever for travelling supporters — expensive tickets, inflated hotel rates, and now transport costs that dwarf anything seen at previous tournaments. In Qatar, official ticket-holders rode Doha's metro for free throughout the competition. Russia offered the same. The U.S. was never going to match that model, with cities and states chasing economic returns rather than absorbing costs centrally. But $75 for a train ride still lands differently when you've already spent a small fortune just getting into the stadium.
The FSA has called on Boston to "revisit" the pricing and give fans "a fair deal." Whether that carries any weight with the MBTA remains to be seen — their statement focused on service investment, not affordability. The fare announcement on April 8 will be the moment of truth.
"This is yet another example of the exploitation of loyal fans who work hard to pay to support their national teams in person," the FSA said. It's a blunt assessment. But with $75 train rides stacking on top of everything else, it's not an unfair one.
