The National Independent Venue Association is making a push to federal lawmakers get so-called “speculative tickets” banned, citing reports from fans for FIFA World Cup games getting turned away at games after buying tickets they couldn’t actually receive.
In a letter to Senate and Congressional leaders Mike Johnson, Hakeem Jeffries, John Thune and Chuck Schumer, NIVA detailed local news reports and testimonials from several fans who tried attending games across the country since the World Cup started last week, only to be told before the event that their tickets couldn’t be delivered.
Speculative ticketing is among the most controversial practices in the live events space, with critics likening the strategy to fraud. With speculative tickets — or as NIVA called them in the letter “ghost tickets” — brokers list tickets they don’t possess yet on platforms like StubHub and VividSeats, hoping to eventually snag tickets in the general seating area they listed. If they can’t manage to get the actual tickets, the fans are out of luck. The ticketing platforms will typically refund buyers for the purchases themselves, but that doesn’t account for travel expenses they may have accrued for flights, hotels, parking or other purchases.
“Instead of showcasing America’s ability to host the world’s largest sporting event, less than a
week into the 2026 World Cup, the international conversation has become one of cancelled
tickets, fraudulent listings, fans turned away at the gates, and consumers left holding thousands
of dollars in unrecoverable travel costs,” NIVA said in its letter.
Speculative tickets have long been a struggle in the music business, as major concert tours are among the most high-demand events in live entertainment and are often a source of frustration for fans as they deal with long lines and high prices as they try to secure seats. Brokers often list speculative tickets for those tours before an on-sale even starts, hoping some more desperate fans will buy in a panic.
There’s currently no federal law prohibiting speculative ticketing, though some states such as Maryland and Oregon have outlawed the practice. NIVA warned in the letter Thursday that the Ticket Act that Congress is currently considering would allow spec ticketing to continue if passed.
NIVA has pushed for a ban on speculative tickets for years, and other larger stakeholders such as Live Nation, the parent company to Ticketmaster, have advocated for legislation as well.
“We warned that consumers would purchase tickets that did not exist,” NIVA wrote in its letter. “We warned that families would travel thousands of miles only to discover their tickets could not be delivered. We warned that refunds would not make consumers whole after airfare, hotels, rental cars, parking, and other travel expenses. Unfortunately, every one of those warnings has become a reality on the world’s biggest sporting stage.”
