Hard Rock Stadium was placed under lockdown shortly before the scheduled start time of the Copa America final between Argentina and Colombia, with the kickoff time delayed by more than an hour amid safety issues caused in part by ticketless fans attempting to make their way into the venue.
Supporters breached the gates around 6 p.m. local time, two hours before the game was scheduled to kick off. Videos quickly emerged on social media showing fans running past security guards and evading those who were on the ground to scan tickets. Several fans are suspected not to have tickets to the soldout match at Hard Rock Stadium, which seats up to 75,000 people. Several supporters made their way into the stadium, including the family of Colombia’s Daniel Munoz — his mother was in tears and his grandmother lost a shoe on the way in, per The Athletic.
At least seven people were being treated during the incident and at least 10 people were arrested, per USA Today.
Closed gates
Roughly a half hour after the breach, security officials closed the gates at Hard Rock Stadium as thousands of people remained stuck outside the stadium on a hot and humid day in Miami Gardens. Security switched on and off between letting fans in, but only allowed supporters to enter at a glacial pace. With roughly an hour to go until kickoff, just two gates were open, but gates were shut again with 40 minutes remaining before the game began, per The Athletic.
“There was a rushing in of fans when they opened the gate and because of that, they closed all the gates and were not opening them at all,” said CBS Sports Golazo Network’s Jenny Chiu, who is on-site at Hard Rock Stadium. “They do not have the infrastructure for this. They don’t have raid gear. They don’t have the security that they need and it’s very evident.”
Players left the locker room at one point to check on their family members, some even venturing towards the chaos outside to ensure their loved ones made it inside the stadium safely. Argentina’s Alexis Mac Allister was one of those players and his mother described the situation as “inhumane” after making her way into Hard Rock Stadium.
Several reports also emerged that a small number of fans fainted while waiting to be let into Hard Rock Stadium.
Delayed kickoff
Players began warm-ups as normal roughly 45 minutes before the originally scheduled kickoff time at 8 p.m. but after about 15 minutes, they were whisked away by security as soon as officials declared a lockdown. Tournament organizers initially pushed kickoff by a half-hour with the stadium about half full. As the situation calmed and security slowly allowed people to trickle in, the start of the game was then moved to 8:45 p.m. and then 9:15 p.m. before beginning shortly after that.
“We have had several severe incidents prior to the gates opening at Hard Rock Stadium for the Copa America final game,” the Miami-Dade Police Department said in a statement issued on social media. “These incidents have been a result of the unruly behavior of fans trying to access the stadium. We are asking everyone to be patient, and abide by the rules set by our officers and Hard Rock Stadium personnel. We are actively working with Hard Rock Stadium to ensure a safe environment for all those attending. Unruly behavior will get you ejected and/or arrested. We have a zero tolerance policy against unruly conduct from everyone attending.”
CONMEBOL echoed that statement with a message of their own.
“We would like to inform you that individuals without tickets will not be allowed entry into the stadium,” CONMEBOL wrote. “Only those with purchased tickets will be permitted entry once access is reopened.”
Lingering issues
The gates re-opened shortly before 8:15 p.m. and fans began entering the stadium at a much more normal rate, but the staff on-site began to let fans in without checking their tickets despite concerns around ticketless fans at the start of the event.
Several fans were spotted seeking water and medical attention upon entering Hard Rock Stadium, likely dealing with the effects of spending a lengthy period of time on a steamy day. Temperatures reached 90°F in Miami Gardens in the early evening, with the climate cooling only marginally once the sun started to come down.
The fact that staff were not checking tickets, though, meant fans without them made their way in and created security concerns inside Hard Rock Stadium. Ticketless supporters were hanging in the staircases between sections, in emergency exits and in VIP sections of the stadium, per multiple reports. In some cases, they were also sitting in seats that were not theirs, with in-stadium security reportedly telling those with tickets that there was nothing they could do.
Fans who did not make it in as easily were still trying to sneak into the stadium once the gates opened, finding unconventional ways to do so like crawling through stadium vents to have a peek at the action.
Several minutes after the game began, though, stadium security started to slowly check tickets of those who were inside the venue and began to kick them out. It took nearly the entirety of the first half to clear out most of the ticketless fans and it is currently unclear how many actually made it out of Hard Rock Stadium.
Many fans with tickets, several of whom spent hundreds and thousands of dollars to do so, were actually blocked from entering the stadium amid all of the chaos.
A worrying trend
It marks the latest security issue at the Copa America, which has been plagued by organizational failures by South American soccer’s governing body, CONMEBOL. Just four days earlier, Uruguay players ventured into the stands at Charlotte’s Bank of America to fight Colombia supporters after their 1-0 loss in the semifinals. Uruguay’s Jose Maria Gimenez claimed his team started the brawl because Colombia supporters were endangering the Uruguay players’ families in that section, saying there was “not one single policeman” to guard their loved ones during the match.
The security issue at the Hard Rock Stadium resembles the final of the pandemic-delayed European Championship three years ago, when thousands of ticketless fans forced their way into London’s Wembley Stadium to watch Italy beat England on penalties. Eighty-six people were arrested in relation to the event and 19 police officers were injured.