World Cup dreams shattered as StubHub tickets cancelled at last minute

When Sergio Enrique Alvarado Montalvo paid $1,700 (£1,300) on StubHub to surprise his father with World Cup tickets, he envisioned an unforgettable Father's Day watching Lionel Messi play.

Instead, after flying his parents from Mexico to Dallas for the Argentina v Austria match, and spending nearly $6,000 (£4,600) on travel and hotels, the family was left stranded outside the stadium gates.

Just one day before they were set to travel to Dallas, StubHub abruptly notified Montalvo that the seller could not deliver the tickets, refusing to provide comparable replacements due to soaring prices.

They turned up at the stadium anyway, hoping they could still get their tickets, with Montalvo on the phone to StubHub up until an hour before kick-off.

"I was so sad and so frustrated, and so filled with rage, anger," the 45-year-old told the BBC. "It was a mix of feelings that is hard to explain."

Montalvo's nightmare is part of what industry insiders are calling one of the largest ticketing collapses in history. As the 2026 World Cup sweeps across 16 cities the US, Canada and Mexico, many fans are finding their bucket lists ruined by last-minute cancellations on secondary marketplaces.

The primary culprit is believed to be an industry practice known as "speculative ticketing", where unverified sellers list tickets they do not yet own, hoping to source them cheaper and closer to the event.

When ticket prices soar, these sellers simply back out of the deal to resell them for a higher profit, leaving buyers like Montalvo empty-handed with a refund for their tickets that doesn't cover their expensive travel costs.

Eben Pingree, 44, from Boston, faced an identical scenario after his wife Caitlin paid $2,800 on StubHub for tickets to the Scotland v Haiti match to surprise their 11-year-old son Cole.

They had co-ordinated an extensive trip with another father-son duo, only for the tickets to vanish on match day. "They basically had to just leave us there, and so my son was just devastated," Pingree told the BBC.

Back in Dallas, Montalvo and his family spent their match evening at a local fan festival instead of watching from the stands.

"It was a super sad weekend... inside, outside... [but] we enjoyed the time together," Montalvo added.