Camden County won’t be left out of World Cup festivities. Gov. Mikie Sherrill announces South Jersey fan fests.

Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill is making sure South Jersey is included in World Cup celebrations.

Sherrill announced plans for World Cup fan fests across the state at Cooper River Park in Pennsauken on Wednesday.

Her decision to make the announcement in Camden County represents the former North Jersey lawmaker’s efforts to spread her attention to South Jersey and not just focus on the New York City suburbs.

New Jersey is hosting World Cup matches at Met Life Stadium East Rutherford outside of New York City, and Philadelphia will host games right across the river at Lincoln Financial Field.

Joined by local officials — and yes, the Rutgers-Camden Scarlet Raptor mascot — Sherrill said Camden County is the very first to start its fan festivities as part of a string of installations and events across the state funded by a $5 million statewide initiative.

“There might be 80,000 seats in Met Life Stadium, but I want to make sure that 9 million New Jerseyans can take part in the fun here in the state,” Sherrill said under a tent on the windy, rainy day. “So today, up and down our state, I’m hoping in every corner, they catch World Cup fever.”

The first-term governor declared: “In New Jersey, the World Cup is for everyone.”

During the announcement, she stood in front of a giant FIFA soccer ball that weighs roughly 500 pounds and took five hours to set up, according to Camden County spokesperson Dan Keashen.

“It was really important to me that we saw economic benefit going to local vendors and local restaurants up and down the state,” Sherrill said.

“Because we have a really great opportunity here, not just to create economic benefit from what’s going on in North Jersey at the Meadowlands, but really to feed off that across the state, and even some of the benefit coming from the Philly game,” she added.

Camden County is hosting several World Cup “activations” that range from inflatable soccer balls advertising local fan fests to soccer-related activities and watch parties, the latter of which will ramp up once the matches actually begin. These activations already began on Saturday at the Down and Derby Wine Festival in Cooper River Park, and there will be another at the Dad Vail Regatta this weekend (May 8 and 9).

Camden County’s flagship event — SoccerFest26 — will take place at Camden’s waterfront Wiggins Waterfront Park from June 25-27 (a three-day period that will feature two group stage games in nearby Philly), and there will also be World Cup festivities at the July 4 Freedom Festival, when Philly is set to host a game for the Round of 16.

There will also be a viewing event for the World Cup finals on July 19 in Cooper River Park.

Out of the $5 million distributed throughout the state for fan fest events, $788,000 was granted to tourism group Visit South Jersey for the Camden County events and smaller events in nearby Gloucester and Burlington Counties, Keashen said.

Separate fan fest events in Burlington, Haddon Heights, Mount Holly, and Atlantic City were also awarded funding.

Sherrill’s emphasis on World Cup celebrations throughout the whole state is a pivot from her predecessor, former Gov. Phil Murphy.

Last year, former first lady Tammy Murphy, who chairs the New York-New Jersey 2026 FIFA World Cup Host Committee, announced plans for a massive fan fest at Liberty State Park in Jersey City that the former governor championed.

But in February, Sherrill announced that instead, the state would fund a $5 million fan fest effort that would reach “every corner of New Jersey.”

Local elected officials praised Sherrill for bringing South Jersey into the fold on Wednesday. Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen said the events will put New Jersey “on the world stage.”

Louis Cappelli, Jr., the director of the Camden County Board of Commissioners, said Wednesday he expects thousands to come to the region’s events.

“Early on, we had a real concern here in South Jersey that we may be overlooked when it came to the World Cup planning,” Cappelli said. “To the governor’s credit, that approach has changed. Her office stepped in and made sure this became a true statewide effort.”

“For those of you who don’t know Gov. Sherrill, she knows that there is part of the state of New Jersey that exists south of Trenton,” he added, and was met with cheers from attendees.

As excited as Sherrill is about celebrating the World Cup, she’s not a huge fan of FIFA, the global tournament’s governing body.

She insisted that FIFA should pay for train fares for fans to get to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford instead of the state footing the bill for the increase in expenses it would cost to move spectators to the stadium.

FIFA has fiercely pushed back on the suggestion, so Sherrill’s administration instead announced that NJ Transit tickets to the games will cost $150 round trip. It’s a sharp contrast to cities like Philadelphia, which are keeping transit costs down, but Boston also announced higher-priced tickets of $80.

Her decisions have all been part of a back-and-forth of weighing the economic costs and benefits the international soccer games will have on the state, at the same time, she says she’s looking out for taxpayers as she negotiates her first state budget with legislators.

Sherrill announced this week that Team Morocco will use The Pingry School in Basking Ridge in Somerset County as a base camp for the World Cup. She said at the event Wednesday that the partnership is a “nice, full-circle moment” the year of America’s 250th anniversary because Morocco was one of the first countries to recognize the nation’s independence.

Her office said more teams will be setting up shop throughout the state, including one at Stockton University in Atlantic County, though the specific team has not yet been announced.