StubHub sold ‘ghost tickets’ for World Cup months before real ones were issued, CBC finds

A CBC News investigation into resale website StubHub has found evidence the company advertised and allowed speculative listings for World Cup tickets months before FIFA actually released any seats.

The resale giant is facing a storm of controversy and calls for stricter regulation over what’s known as “speculative ticketing” after the company stranded thousands of soccer fans, cancelling ticket orders just hours before game time when deals with sellers fell through.

“We’re calling for governments to pay attention,” said Stephen Parker, executive director of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), the live industry association for the United States. He’s written Congress calling for a ban on scalper speculation.

“You cannot sell a car that you don’t own. You can’t sell a house that you do not own.… If you take money for something and then don’t deliver it, that’s fraud.”

StubHub World Cup ticket cancellations prompt calls for investigations, legal action

StubHub, a global resale marketplace used by casual resellers and professional mass scalpers, has declined requests for an interview.

Spokesperson Jack Sterne in an email to CBC last week blamed the company’s widespread cancellations on FIFA’s ticketing technology.

“StubHub does not allow speculative tickets, period,” he wrote.

But in a statement Thursday, the company said its sellers often post tickets they’ve been promised but don’t yet have in-hand.

CBC’s investigation found a lack of controls on StubHub’s platform and evidence World Cup tickets were offered for resale long before FIFA first made assigned seats available on Sept. 10, 2025.

Multiple social media posts show what appear to be StubHub advertisements for 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets as early as August 2024 — a year before FIFA’s official release.

StubHub did not respond to CBC’s questions about the ads.

Jeremy Wright of Austin, Texas, bought his pair Sept. 3, 2025, as a Christmas gift for his wife, a week before FIFA’s official release.

“I clearly bought ghost tickets,” Wright told CBC News after he was left stranded on game day.

They drove four hours to Houston only to be stiffed while waiting outside the stadium.

‘I bought ghost tickets,’ says World Cup fan

He attributes the ticket cancellations to speculative ticketing.

“Speculators … will start selling tickets that they don’t have on platforms like StubHub and the expectation is that they can buy the tickets later and fill the order,” Wright explained.

“The World Cup didn’t work out that way for them. Ticket prices kept going up and lots of these sellers just never bought the tickets, never filled the orders.”

Wright has since filed formal complaints with the Better Business Bureau, the Texas Attorney General, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

StubHub cancels thousands of World Cup tickets, leaving fans furious and heartbroken

Brad Michel of San Antonio, Texas, placed his order on StubHub on Jan. 5, 2025 — nine months before FIFA began issuing actual tickets.

He paid $15,654 US for what he thought were three prime, mid-field seats for a Netherlands versus Sweden match in Houston.

His tickets claimed to be Section 104, but lacked any seat or row numbers.

He planned to bring his son and fly in his father-in-law who is from Sweden.

“I feel like I got scammed,” Michel told CBC News. “I’m like stupid for even thinking that I would be able to buy tickets that far in advance.”

“I think they sold the tickets to someone else for a higher price point than what I originally paid. [That’s] what I think. It’s kind of a bait and switch.”

StubHub failed to deliver and offered “nosebleed” seats as replacements, he said.

Michel refused, watched the game on TV instead at the Airbnb they had rented, and is now fighting for a refund.

StubHub has not answered direct questions about whether World Cup tickets on its site were sold “on spec.” The company said in its statement that resellers can buy special “guaranteed access” packages in advance of major events and are promised allotments of seats which they can post for sale so long as they have a “path to obtaining” real tickets in the end.

Artist manager Randy Nichols, an advocate for ticket reforms, tested StubHub’s platform last May by pretending to list imaginary tickets for resale.

“There’s only a trust system, there’s zero verification,” he told CBC News.

“I recently, before World Cup tickets were even on sale to the general public, was able to list and put tickets up for sale within seconds.”

Posting tickets on StubHub too easy, industry advocate says

CBC attempted to post its own imaginary World Cup tickets onto StubHub this week, but found the platform now explicitly requires a seller to upload a real FIFA ticket before allowing it to be posted for resale.

However, CBC was able to list two pretend tickets for resale on StubHub for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles — offering to resell them for $2 US each — with just a few simple clicks.

StubHub didn’t ask for a real ticket, or require a row or seat number. The company simply asked for a credit card and for the seller to check a box attesting that “I agree to StubHub’s Terms and Conditions. I confirm I own these tickets or have the right to be issued these tickets.”

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Olympics, which goes by LA28, told CBC in an email, “LA28 tickets listed for resale prior to 2027 are not verified by LA28.”

CBC News also found what appear to be speculative tickets for the 2027 Super Bowl in Los Angeles already posted for resale on StubHub as well as similar resale sites Vivid Seats and TicketsOnSale — when real, verified NFL tickets have yet to be issued by the box office.

StubHub has nearly 100 Super Bowl seats on offer. There are more than 200 posted on both Vivid Seats and Tickets On Sale — most without assigned seat or row numbers. One pair on StubHub for $10,526 US is listed simply as “Upper Endzone” — which doesn’t actually exist as a section on the stadium seat map.

StubHub, in its statement, said sellers listing Super Bowl tickets may have received promises of future tickets through purchased allotments or season ticket holder agreements even if they don’t have assigned seats.

“This is standard practice across the entire Super Bowl ticketing market — other marketplaces like Vivid Seats are also listing 2027 Super Bowl tickets now — and is not unique to StubHub.”

Vivid Seats spokesperson Julia Young told CBC News that her company prohibits “undisclosed speculative ticketing” but allows sellers to offer seats they don’t possess.

“Our Seat Saver program [is] a service where the seller has offered to procure tickets for the customer,” she wrote in an email.

“You cart your selections; we’ll handle the shopping,” proclaims the company website.

SeatGeek, an official ticketing partner with the National Football League, has no advance seats for resale for the Super Bowl.

The World Cup fiasco has prompted calls for government action and enforcement to combat speculative ticketing.

Stephen Parker of NIVA and the Fan Alliance wrote a joint letter June 18 to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson urging lawmakers “to ban the sale of fake, or ‘ghost,’ tickets and enact ticket price gouging protections for all resale tickets sold in the U.S.”

“The way to fix this – is a resale price cap,” Parker told CBC News in an interview. “You have to take away the incentive to defraud. You have to take away the incentive to price gouge.”

He points to the World Cup held in Qatar four years ago where a resale price cap was imposed.

“If the United States had [a resale price cap], if Canada had that. I don’t think we’d be seeing the issues that we’re seeing right now.”

Ban scalping to prevent ticketing fiascos, watchdog says

Keldon Bester of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly project says authorities need to step up enforcement.

“The fix has to include stronger competition and consumer protection enforcement, clearer rules against deceptive conduct, and real accountability for platforms that profit from these transactions,” Bester said in an email.

Jeremy Wright of Austin, Texas — for whom StubHub provided replacement tickets in the end — says there need to be laws to ban speculation.

“There clearly needs to be some legislation against selling these ghost tickets,” he said, despite StubHub’s attempts to make amends. “It’s egregious that StubHub was selling tickets that didn’t exist.”

B.C. launches probe into StubHub over World Cup resale ticket fiasco

Soccer fans file class-action lawsuit against StubHub over cancelled World Cup tickets

In Canada, British Columbia (which has launched a probe into the StubHub World Cup ticketing fiasco) and Ontario both have laws that explicitly ban speculative ticketing.

In the U.S. there is no federal ban. However, Nevada (2017), Maryland, Minnesota, Arizona (2024), and Oregon, Vermont, Illinois (2026) have all passed legislation outlawing the practice.

California is currently considering such a ban.

StubHub is on record as opposing California Bill AB 1349, and is helping to fund an advertising campaign to defeat the measure.