StubHub cancels thousands of World Cup tickets, leaving fans angry and frustrated
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“It’s suspicious. A lot of things here don’t add up.”
That’s how Mark Gallagher of West Vancouver feels about ticketing company StubHub.
He paid $11,380 Cdn months ago to get prime seats to watch Canada play Qatar in a World Cup match in Vancouver last Thursday. They were going to be a Christmas present for family members.
But StubHub never delivered the tickets, despite repeated calls to customer service in the weeks, days and hours before game time.
Gallagher is one of thousands of angry fans across North America caught up in what ticket industry insiders call a massive meltdown and black eye at World Cup events.
Mark Gallagher tells CBC News about the frustration of being assured his World Cup tickets would arrive – only to arrive at BC Place in Vancouver empty.
“The night before the game, we were in a panic. You can imagine how difficult the situation was. We stayed up until four in the morning with someone on the line trying to solve this problem,” Gallagher told CBC News.
“They said, ‘Everything is fine. Your tickets are 100 percent guaranteed. We’ll get back to you in two to three hours.’ That never happened.”
StubHub canceled his order while he was locked out of the arena. No explanation, no replacement and no refund, he said.
‘Ticket guessing’ is suspected
StubHub said in an email that it will look into Gallagher’s case in Vancouver and will honor refund guarantees to fans. The company also released a statement it initially gave to CBC News last week blaming FIFA’s ticketing technology for the problems. But he declined to elaborate.
FIFA, which organizes the 2026 World Cup and is soccer’s governing body, referred all questions to StubHub.
“We’re seeing, by and large, the biggest decline in ticket sales history,” said Scott Friedman, a 20-year ticket industry executive in Cleveland who runs the organization. Ticket Chat Network a podcast.
Friedman called his supporters this week and said that he has collected more than 400 complaints from StubHub customers who say they were sold tickets that never arrived and are still demanding a refund.
“StubHub is famous for this – not just for the FIFA World Cup but for other events around the world. Because they allow guessing the tickets,” he said.
The practice, which is banned in several US states, is blamed for a slew of ticket cancellations including high-profile tours by Oasis and Olivia Rodrigo.
The World Cup is more focused on second-hand products
The exception to this, say some observers, is the World Cup – played in 16 cities in Canada, the United States and Mexico – focuses public attention on the failure of retailers like StubHub like never before.
“I see hundreds of complaints a day on social media,” said Randy Nichols, a New York City-based band manager who sits on the board and conducts ticket research for the National Independent Talent Organization, a US trade nonprofit.
“That makes me think how many people are being hurt who are not on social media talking about this. We are in the hundreds a day. It’s out of the question. Thousands a day.”
Ticket researcher Randy Nichols says ‘speculative ticket buying’ can affect thousands of fans every day. You need strict oversight of resale markets.
Nichols is calling for reform and greater transparency in the ticketing industry.
“We need to ban speculative tickets, for one thing. Selling something you don’t have access to should be completely illegal. These marketplaces like StubHub should be regulated in many ways,” he said.
“They have to let you know who you’re buying from, and there has to be a seller rating. Like on eBay, Amazon, Uber, Lyft. Every other marketplace in the world.”
Both Canada’s Competition Bureau and the US Federal Trade Commission declined to comment on whether they were investigating.
However, the Competition Bureau issued a statement saying that it has taken action against ticketing companies in the past and “strongly encourages anyone who suspects that a company or individual is involved in anti-competitive behavior to report online complaint form.”
Mark Gallagher of Vancouver said he feels cheated and wants more than just a refund from StubHub.
“They just kept kicking us and promising us things that were never delivered once. And this is not one conversation…. These are many conversations, many conversations. I probably spent 15 to 20 hours on this alone a week before the game, trying to get tickets.”
Gallagher vows to hunt down StubHub to make sure he gets his $11,000. But the most important thing, he said, is to expose the company’s failure to protect future consumers.
“I will get my money back. I will drive them completely crazy … failure is not an option. The most important thing for me in this case is … I don’t want to do anything. I want to be part of the solution to bring out what I think is a very wrong thing because the emotional stress and anxiety they put you through is immeasurable,” he said.
“What I hope to get out of this is change. For everyone.”
