Oklahoma family says StubHub ticket failure kept them out of Japan's World Cup match
What was supposed to be a dream World Cup experience for an Oklahoma family turned into a scramble for answers — and a second round of last-minute spending — after their tickets never arrived.
Rozina Taguchi had planned the trip for months. When Japan's first World Cup match in North Texas was announced, she immediately bought tickets through StubHub for herself and her father, a lifelong soccer fan.
"It started with my dad, so he's… my dad is a huge soccer fan," Taguchi said. "He's loved the sport forever. He was born and raised in Yokohama."
Taguchi said she purchased the tickets in December and received both a receipt and a confirmation. But on game day, the tickets still hadn't been delivered. Instead, she opened the app to a message she never expected.
"This red message that just said, 'Seller unable to provide tickets,'" she said.
She hoped it was a glitch.
"And my heart just stopped for a second, and… immediately, my next thought was, no way, this… this has to be a glitch," she said.
A last‑minute scramble shared in real time
With no replacement tickets available through StubHub, Taguchi turned to TikTok, documenting the ordeal as kickoff approached.
In one video, she told viewers: "We are on the chat with StubHub right now."
Another update captured the moment reality set in: "We are so devastated and hurt, we've been planning this for like months. We took off work, travel, and everything for this."
A final post confirmed the outcome: "Update we did not get to the game."
Taguchi said she was stunned to learn how many others were experiencing the same issue.
"What shocked me the most was how many people had the same experience," she said. "Even worse than us."
StubHub responds
StubHub declined an on-camera interview, but in a statement to CBS News Texas, the company said: "The vast majority of StubHub World Cup orders have been fulfilled." It attributed ticket failures to "performance problems with the event organizer's own ticketing infrastructure, which has created transfer failures across all resale platforms."
When asked whether buyers were warned about potential issues, Taguchi said she received no such notice.
"We never heard anything about the StubHub situation with the World Cup tickets," she said.
A second chance – at twice the price
Under its FanProtect Guarantee, StubHub issued Taguchi a full refund. But that didn't get her and her father into the match they had planned for months. Determined not to miss Japan's next appearance, they purchased new tickets — this time at double the cost.
They made it into Japan's second match at Dallas Stadium, and Taguchi said simply walking through the gates felt like the real win.
"I truly believe that there needs to be more done in honesty through ticket sellers, resellers, anybody who's selling tickets, and a lot more disclosure about what the risks are right up front," she said.
