Match day ticket issue puts Missouri family on the brink of missing World Cup match
By Andy Alcock
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KMBC) — The trip of a lifetime for one St. Louis-area family to see a World Cup game in Kansas City took a stressful and potentially heartbreaking twist on Tuesday.
Nearly seven months after buying four tickets on StubHub, Dacy Gillespie received an email from StubHub on Tuesday morning informing her the tickets were no longer available.
Gillespie shared a video her husband, David DeRiso, took of the couple’s sons on Christmas morning after they found out they were going.
“Oh my God, World Cup tickets,” Matteo DeRiso, 12, exclaimed in the video.
The video also shows his brother Luca, 7, crumpled in a heap in tears after learning they were coming to Kansas City for the World Cup.
“It was going to be a once in a lifetime experience,” Gillespie said.
She provided the email StubHub sent her dated Nov. 25, 2025, nearly seven months ago and before the game schedule was released.
It shows Gillespie ordered four tickets and would have them by June 16.
When she later found out Argentina was playing in the match, in addition to surprising her boys with tickets, she bought them Lionel Messi jerseys as Christmas presents.
“I get to go see Messi play. It’s the best day of my life,” Matteo said in the video.
From that joy Christmas morning, fast forward to an email Gillespie received from StubHub at 7:05 a.m. Tuesday on game day at her Kansas City-area hotel, priced at $400 a night.
The email states, “We need to replace your tickets. But we’ve got you covered with our FanProtect guarantee. We found you new tickets at no extra cost.”
But when Gillespie clicked the link “Review New Tickets,” it states, “Sorry, there are currently no replacement tickets available.”
At Gillespie’s request, KMBC 9 News called StubHub.
A representative said the case would be escalated.
The bottom line for Gillespie is she couldn’t disappoint her boys.
“I’m just going to do everything I can up until the game starts to try to get them what I promised them. Sorry,” she said as she wiped away tears.
When asked if she felt cheated, Gillespie replied, “Yeah, definitely.”
A StubHub representative called Gillespie Tuesday afternoon with the promise of new tickets just hours before game time. But that call came after Gillespie bought four other tickets on another site at more than four times the price of her StubHub purchase in November.
Late Tuesday afternoon, after a second KMBC 9 News call to StubHub, a representative said replacement tickets were on the way to Gillespie.
It’s not the first time there’s been a similar issue with StubHub replacing World Cup tickets shortly before game time after being contacted by journalists.
KMBC 9 News Hearst affiliate station WBAL-TV 11 News in Baltimore reports it happened to another family going to a World Cup game at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
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