Isabel Quintero purchased two $1,000 tickets for the Copa America final in Miami Gardens’ Hard Rock Stadium. Argentina and Colombia were facing off — and she wanted to treat her dad, who lives in Colombia, to a late Father’s Day celebration. But the festivities ended with her being denied entry — and she was pushed, trampled and slammed into objects, her attorneys say, by an unruly crowd that flooded the stadium’s gates, even slithering through vents.
Quintero is now one of at least five Copa America ticketholders who are suing after the stampede flooded the stadium before Sunday night’s highly anticipated matchup. After the swarm of ticketless soccer fans, security shut the gates, locking out hundreds and possibly thousands of ticket-holding fans — meaning a deluge of other lawsuits could be on the horizon.
The lawsuits named South Florida Stadium LLC, which operates the Hard Rock Stadium, and CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation, as defendants.
Additionally, Jacqueline Martinez bought four tickets for more than $4,000 to attend the game with her husband, Nicolas Osorio, and her parents, Marta Pintos and Eduardo Martinez. The family, however, was barred from entering the stadium due to the mob.
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