Hard rock stadium was the site of the copa America final, matching Colombia against Argentina in soccer.
The game sold out, so 66,000 fans were expected.
Only, it would appear that the stadium itself was not ready for that crowd, or their general behavior. As you can see in the attached articles, people had plans to go to the game, whether or not they had tickets.
There were many instances of people trying to get in - from just rushing security, to climbing over a ticket booth to jump onto a ramp, to breaking an AC duct and climbing in that way - they were determined.
By some estimates, more than 7,000 people made it into the stadium through those breaches.
But the police and stadium security didn't know how to respond. So they simply shut the gates, trapping fans in a potentially dangerous crowd at the entrances. Oh and that didn't stop the determined people - only those that were following the rules.
When they did let people in again, the chaos resumed. A bunch of people never had their tickets scanned, and there are reports of people being pushed, though not trampled or crushed.
At some point, the stadium management made a decision that they were "at capacity" and closed the gates again. But this time, you had people on the outside with valid tickets who weren't allowed in.
The game itself was delayed for about an hour and a quarter, while they sorted this all out.
Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. And there wasn't anyone looking to cause other sorts of mayhem. But you can see how easily that kind of thing could have happened.
This is a failure in the stadium. It reflects badly on soccer, and Miami. And there are future large scale events (including a World Cup in 2 years time) that now need special attention.
While you can blame very many failures on many people and groups, at the end of the day the stadium is owned by Stephen Ross. He gets public money for events that are hosted at the stadium. The failures and any subsequent fallout should be directed at him.
For whatever reason, plans were not made to host this event or provide adequate security and safety measures. And that should be all on him.
Of course, to this point, he hasn't been mentioned and is keeping quiet. Shame on him.
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