First lady Tammy Murphy can now add to her resume.

Chair of the board of directors for the New York New Jersey Host Committee for the 2026 FIFA World Cup eight tournament matches will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford in a little more than a year, and one of those games will be the final match of the World Cup.

It's a huge deal for New Jersey and the region and it takes a whole lot of planning.

First lady Tammy Murphy joins me now to explain what all goes into it.

First lady, it's so great to have you with us.

You have called these games a once in a generation opportunity for a region to define itself.

When we talk about planning at this stage, help me understand what type of planning is required to make sure that fans have a great experience, that the games go off without a hitch, and that our business and transit sectors are ready for this.

I know an easy question to start.

That wasn't me doing.

Thank you Joanna.

Listen, in this, if you think about planning an event, it's everything from soup to nuts.

It's everything from transportation and logistics to security to making sure that the experience, which is what I'm particularly focused on, the experience on the ground, is fantastic.

And whether one is able to go into the stadium or whether one is going to one of our many fan fest that are going to be activated across the region, that the the excitement, the energy is palpable.

This is there's there's 1,000,001 details that go into this right now.

We are truly working with FIFA, working with, everyone, who touches on any piece of this hospitality, construction.

Everybody is involved in this, and it's it's keeping all of those threads moving forward.

How many people are expected to come into the region for the games, both from, you know, out of state, out of country?

What's the number and what do you expect the impact to be economically to the state and to, to local businesses?

Yeah.

So, first of all, you know, there are probably the there's probably going to be over a million people who are coming to our region, our region defined as New York City and the state of new Jersey, because this is a joint bid, for the two of us together.

It's it's a going to be an economic driver for the region.

Upwards of 2 billion.

That's going to be dollars, which is fantastic.

There are I'm giving you the low end of the range, by the way.

We are anticipating over 14,000 jobs will be supported through this endeavor.

And it's it's it's really exciting.

We're now mobilize a lot of our, a lot of our businesses and industries in, in the region, and it's going to impact all of us.

I think we're all going to feel it.

And I'm really excited about that.

You know, you mentioned New York and as you said, it's a joint venture.

What type of communication?

Interstate inter government communication is required right now.

And I just have to ask, is there any strain in some of those communications having to do with congestion pricing and what's happened to the region recently?

Flawless communication.

We are we are talking all the time.

Our teams are talking at the levels where they need to be integrated, across New York City and New Jersey.

And, you know, we are, you know, the mayor and I speak.

We we've met.

Yeah, I would just say to you that that we are we are all focused on this, incredible opportunity for the region.

And and we all understand the responsibility we have.

This is going to be 48 countries that are going to be coming together and fight for the final, which we are incredibly excited will be, in New Jersey.

So there's there's a lot of moving parts, but we are we we are all in this together.

Perhaps one of the biggest moving parts is NJ transit.

It's been a thorn in the side of commuters, as of late.

Probably also and been a thorn in the side of your husband in the Murphy administration.

How do you ensure what needs to happen to ensure, that it's ready for the moment?

And that, by the way, seems to be the million dollar question for anyone looking to take on NJ Transit right now.

Yeah.

I mean, look, not to cast aspersions, but NJ transit is is really is really humming along.

We are we are reliant upon a lot of our federal partners for pieces of this puzzle.

And we can only do so much, the tracks, and other pieces of this don't belong to us.

But I would say to you, we will continue to invest in New Jersey Transit.

It's incredibly important.

And we we recognize that in the connectivity across our region is, is important not just for these games, but it's important for, you know, our our, our state for our country.

As, as, the percentage of people who go through our state to, reach either New York or Boston or down to, Washington and other areas.

So, we are we're still working on it, and it's a it's going to be a work in progress, but it's going to require additional investment.

We know that, and there's other pieces to this puzzle that we're, we're putting together right now.

Just a few seconds left.

What do you hope folks who come here to New Jersey in particular, walk away saying about our state?

I hope they walk away saying, wow, that was the best experience I've ever had in my life.

And I hope that they say they want to come back.

I hope that they say that they, just really had an amazing time and that they enjoyed the games and that they were not bothered by security or infrastructure or anything.

They actually would boast that they had, the best time of any World Cup they've ever attended.

All right.

First Lady Tammy Murphy, who is also now the chair of the board of directors of the New York New Jersey Host Committee for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Thank you so much for coming on tonight.

Okay.

Thanks, Joanna.