in our Spotlight on Business Report what exactly did New Jersey promise to win hosting duties for the 2026 FIFA World Cup final well after months of denied public records requests and help from attorneys two North jersey.com reporters finally got their hands on the contract between FIFA and New Jersey and New York it shows what state and city taxpayers will be on the hook to pay for and just how much we don't know about estimates for total costs which could balloon in to hundreds of millions of dollarss Katie Sobko is the State House reporter for North jersey.com who successfully won access to those documents and joins me now to share what she uncovered Katie good to see you thanks so much for coming on the show um I'm going to get into in a minute just the sheer difficulty you had getting what are public records but first let me ask you what were the Topline items that stuck out to you from this contract well obviously the contract as a whole it's very long there's an addendum there are a few amendments so just in general the contract is um has a lot has a lot involved in it but the big one big ticket items are FIFA wants some tax exemptions there's nothing specified in the report but they want tax exemptions they want tax breaks they want leniency on local taxes any way that to minimize what they're paying they want a way to do that also the state has outright agreed to free public transportation for events including the games themselves including the FanFest events anything that's going on during that six weeks window when FIFA is here for games at MetLife they want trains buses free public transportation now there are lines in the contract that are similar to other cities that have since rolled back we don't know if that's going to happen here but as it stands there is nothing legally obligating them to roll it back right now well and that definitely raises some eyebrows considering the fact that New Jersey Transit as you wrote in the piece uh reminded us rather just raised High hiked fairs by 15% has this U massive budget deficit it's looking at um what else did we find out about what taxpayers could be on the hook for do we have an exact number or even a roundabout number at this point we have no number we have numbers as to what we're paying so far the sports Exposition Authority is responsible for what happens at mlife and on the metal lands grounds um so far they've been promised um or they've paid uh for stadium Renovations New Jersey Transit is paying for uh work design work to figure out how to do a Transit way and how to um make it so that there aren't the problems that happened after the Super Bowl in 2014 so we know some of the money that's been spent but overall we have no idea how much it's going to cost we know in Toronto they're saying saying $380 million in Toronto where they don't have a final they don't have as many games and it's generally a smaller market so there's no exact figure there's not a projected figure they're not even giving us an estimated number right now so so let me understand that correctly some cities other host cities that aren't doing the the final but are hosting other matches do have projections on what they estimate the costs will be but we do not correct when we've asked about it we have gotten radio silence from specific agencies specific authorities and the uh the host committee hasn't addressed it directly they just say that they're fundraising to cover the bulk of the cost but there's there's not even a number as to what they're trying to fund raise for okay I mean to be fair it is difficult as we've talked to folks to really understand how much is going to need to be spent on this and how much will come back um you all had a very difficult time obtaining these records uh did you uncover anything else about how we're splitting the cost because it is being build as a New York New Jersey hosting team did you uncover anything about that how we split the costs and the benefits with New York well New York is signed on to the contract they are another body on the contract there is no contract between the state Sports and Exposition Authority and New York City in terms of paying for the work that needs to be done to meet the FIFA requirements New York is going to have to pay for their own sorts of FanFest and fan activities obviously there's going to be a watch party in Central Park that's up to New York to pay for much like New Jersey's going to have to pay for a a FanFest in Liberty State Park but in terms of the work actually being done at the stadium in terms of the beautification as FIFA calls it of the metal lands area there's nothing on paper that says New York is going to reimburse New Jersey for what is pay being paid for that the devil as they say is in the details Katie Sobko with North North jersey.com thanks for sharing your reporting absolutely thank you