According to reports by the BBC on July 2nd local time, hundreds of fans who purchased World Cup tickets through the second-hand ticketing platform StubHub reported that the tickets they bought were cancelled near the start of the tournament. Many fans had spent a lot of money traveling to the event, only to be turned away from the stadium.
At the age of 45, Montalvo spent $1700 on tickets through StubHub, hoping to bring his father to watch Messi’s game as a surprise on Father’s Day, creating an unforgettable watching experience for the whole family. However, reality didn’t match his expectations: he flew his parents from Mexico to Dallas, and the combined costs of round-trip flights and hotel accommodations amounted to nearly $6000. In the end, the whole family was stopped outside the stadium, leaving them in a dilemma.
Just one day before setting off for Dallas, StubHub suddenly informed Montalvo that the seller was unable to deliver the tickets. Due to the steep increase in ticket prices, the platform also refused to provide him with alternative tickets of equal quality. Nevertheless, the family still arrived at the stadium on time, hoping to get a ticket. One hour before the game began, Montalvo was still continuously calling StubHub's customer service to communicate.
Forty-five-year-old Montál Vor and his family traveled to Dallas, Texas, to watch a game, but their tickets purchased from a secondhand website were told they could not be delivered. BBC
Reports indicate that Montalvo’s unfortunate experience is just a microcosm of this “largest ticket collapse in history”. During this World Cup, the lifelong dream of many fans to watch the matches became impossible due to the unilateral cancellation of orders by secondary ticketing platforms just before the tournament.
The industry believes that the root cause lies in a chaotic practice known as “speculative ticket selling”: sellers who do not have the necessary qualifications list their tickets for sale before actually owning them. They bet on selling the tickets at a low price before the game begins in order to make a profit from the transaction. Once market ticket prices soar, these sellers will directly cancel the transactions and sell the tickets at a higher price. Buyers can only obtain the original price of the tickets, while the high costs associated with transportation and accommodation for watching the games are not compensated.
This ticketing crisis is intensifying, with various related companies shifting blame and blaming each other without end.
It is reported that all genuine World Cup tickets can only be purchased and traded through the official website of the event’s organizer, FIFA.com, or its official app. Therefore, tickets purchased on second-hand reselling platforms like StubHub must be transferred within the official FIFA system.
StubHub blamed the issue on FIFA, stating that FIFA’s new ticketing app had “serious performance issues” before the event, which affected the ticket transfer process across all secondary reselling platforms.
FIFA rebutted this claim, stating that official channels are the only means of purchasing tickets that offer guarantees. They said they have no intention of endorsing any issues related to ticket transfers that occur through third-party platforms. FIFA emphasized that they “disagree” with the claims that problems related to ticket transfers are caused by their systems.
Regarding this, Friedman, co-founder of the ticketing information platform Ticket Talk Network, said bluntly: “The responsibility for this lies entirely with StubHub. Just for this World Cup, I have collected over 600 complaints from consumers.” He also added, “FIFA isn’t without problems either. Their ticketing system has a terrible experience; its technical level is comparable to old software from 1999.”
Reports indicate that it is still unclear how many consumers have encountered problems after purchasing tickets through StubHub and other second-hand ticketing platforms. Hundreds of fans have filed complaints online, and there are reports stating that as many as thousands of consumers have had their orders canceled.
As the World Cup enters a more competitive stage of knockout matches, industry regulators warn that the crisis of canceled orders may worsen. More families will eagerly head to the stadium, only to be stopped outside the field, suffering huge losses for an experience that should be unforgettable for a lifetime.
