StubHub shares tanked over 10% Thursday on its disastrous World Cup partnership, which erased its quarterly profit and left customers who bought tickets stranded outside stadiums – resulting in a frenzy of media coverage and litigation.
In its Wednesday earnings report, the massive ticket reseller reported a loss attributable to common stockholders of $40,000, or less than a penny per share, for the quarter ended June 30, an improvement from a $75.9 million loss in the same quarter last year.
Revenue soared 33% to $573.1 million, beating analysts’ estimates of $513.3 million – but expenses rose even faster at 37% as the World Cup ticketing catastrophe wiped out its profits.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup – which was hosted by 16 cities, including 11 in the US – was largely expected to deliver StubHub a boom in profits.
But the company was plagued by complaints from customers who paid for tickets months in advance – and then found themselves stuck outside stadiums around the country without an entry pass.
“As fans ourselves, we understand the disappointment when these issues occur,” CEO Eric Baker said during an earnings call late Wednesday. “Our marketplace only works when fans attend an event.”
Baker blamed the dismal earnings on FIFA’s mobile app, which he said was created by the event organizer as “just a bespoke thing for this tournament, not anything that anybody would typically rely on.”
FIFA’s app “added an additional layer of complexity” as StubHub attempted to manage an influx of ticket orders for 75 soccer matches held in cities nationwide across a two-week span, he added.
Baker said the majority of StubHub customers did not experience any issue with their World Cup tickets, adding that “there was a small subset of fans who didn’t have the experience they wanted and had to get a refund.”
“That’s unacceptable to us. We work every day to try and eliminate that. Even one refund … is one too many,” he added.
The stock is now down nearly 60% from its market debut last year. The company sold shares to the public at $23.50 last September.
A lawsuit in Manhattan federal court that is seeking class-action status alleged two California residents shelled out thousands for World Cup tickets, only for StubHub to cancel their orders at the last minute.
LA resident Reuben Renteria paid $2,294 for two tickets to the match between Mexico and Korea and traveled all the way to Mexico before he realized StubHub had cancelled the order, the lawsuit said.
Orange County resident Julia Reeker Moghal was also left stranded outside LA’s SoFi Stadium after she bought tickets for a Switzerland matchup, the suit claimed.
In another instance, an 89-year-old San Diego man’s dream of attending a FIFA World Cup match was crushed when StubHub failed to send his 26-year-old granddaughter the tickets she’d already paid for, The Post previously reported.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which initially reported on the ticketing fiasco, StubHub’s problems extend beyond the tournament, as more than 50 customers claim they were denied entry for other events despite paying for tickets through the company. Many said they only got a refund after hiring a lawyer or spreading the story in the press.
Heartbroken fans have lodged other complaints over the ticketing chaos surrounding the World Cup.
A bombshell lawsuit last month accused FIFA of giving regular fans the idea that they had a chance to sit right by the field when they paid for premium tickets, even though the best seats were already set aside for corporate bigwigs and VIPs, as The Post first reported.
Resellers like Ticketmaster and StubHub have faced backlash in recent years over accusations they act as a monopoly, hiking ticket prices with hidden fees that force customers to fork over hundreds for most concert experiences. The companies have denied the allegations.
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