“Hundreds of” fans with tickets to the Copa America championship match near Miami never made it inside, after stadium entrances were closed due to hooligans storming gates, officials said Monday.
The thrilling match, won by Argentina over Colombia in extra time, started nearly 90 minutes late Sunday night because of mayhem at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, a venue set to be used for the 2026 World Cup.
“It was mayhem,” shutout fan Rebeca Hwang told NBC News on Monday. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Hwang said she was crushed for her children, 6 and 9, who spent months learning about the teams and following competition before flying to cross-country to Florida — only to be “treated like criminals.”
“There was not much explanation, seeing people who illegally took our seats in the stadium, enjoying our seats, and we’re not even near a bottle of water or medics,” the Stanford University lecturer Hwang said. “We, the ticketed ones, were treated like criminals, behind the fences.”
Once non-ticketed fans broke inside, some gates were “closed and re-opened strategically in an attempt to allow ticketed guests to enter safely and in a controlled manner,” according to a statement issued by Hard Rock Stadium operators on Monday.
The gate closures only led to more problems as some unruly fans “continued to engage in illegal conduct — fighting police officers, breaking down walls and barricades and vandalizing the stadium,” the Hard Rock statement continued.
And once the stadium reached capacity, official said they had no choice but to keep fans out, even those with tickets.
“We understand there are disappointed ticket holders who were not able to enter the stadium after the perimeter was closed, and we will work in partnership with CONMEBOL to address those individual concerns,” according to a the Hard Rock Stadium statement.
“Ultimately, there is nothing more important than the health and safety of all guests and staff, and that will always remain our priority.”
Fans with tickets wandered from gate to gate, in desperate hopes that someone would let them inside.
“There were so many people in the same situation, hundreds of people just going around to every exit,” Hwang said. “Frustration would be the understatement of the century.”
The match had been slated to start at 8 p.m. but as the gates became bottlenecked, officials pushed back kickoff — first to 8:30 p.m., then 8:45 p.m. and finally 9:15 p.m. before action got underway at about 9:22 p.m.
Matteo Moschella and Donna Mendell contributed.
