People are still calling for answers after the Copa America final. Fans who paid thousands for tickets and couldn’t get inside the stadium now want their money back, and some are turning to the courts for help. NBC6’s Sasha Jones reports
People are still looking for answers after the Copa America final at the Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.
Chaos at the entrance gates resulted in fans without tickets getting inside the stadium, while many ticketed fans couldn’t get in to watch the soccer match.
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Das Nobel and his family traveled from Dallas, Texas to watch Lionel Messi in the Copa America final. But he says they were denied entry despite spending around $7,000 for tickets.
“And we watched hundreds of other families with kids that are stranded with tickets. And we saw that multiple times, people were let in without going through security check, let alone the ticketing check. So it put a lot of the people in danger within the stadium,” Nobel said.
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Nobel still has not received a refund. He said he is now looking to take legal action.
“…I think what they need to do is do the right by the customers that did not get to experience and we want to make sure that, not only for our family, is all these other families that may not have the resources,” Nobel said.
He isn’t the only one looking to the courts for help.
Coverage of Copa America chaos
Another fan, Jackie Martinez, filed a lawsuit Monday against Hard Rock Stadium and the event organizer CONMEBOL.
The lawsuit stated in part, “The unlawful entry of individuals into the arena was a foreseeable consequence of Defendant's failure to implement adequate crowd control measures, security protocols, and ticket verification processes.”
The suit went on to say, “The defendants failed to provide a safe and secure environment for ticket holders, thereby engaging in deceptive and unfair trade practices.”
NBC6 Responds reached out to Hard Rock Stadium and CONMEBOL about whether they would be approving refunds for ticketed fans who couldn’t get inside and enjoy Sunday’s event. We have been waiting for a response since Monday.
In a statement released on X that day, Hard Rock Stadium representatives wrote they would work “in partnership with CONMEBOL to address individual concerns.”
But CONMEBOL is pointing the finger at Hard Rock Stadium in a recent statement, stating in part that they were “subject to the decision made by Hard Rock Stadium authorities” and that preparation recommendations made to Hard Rock authorities “were not taken into account.”
Hard Rock Stadium representatives denied these allegations in a statement released Tuesday, writing they implemented and exceeded CONMEBOL’s security recommendations.
But in the midst of this back and forth, fans like Nobel are looking for a resolution.
“We obviously want to get our refund. Second thing is purely out of principles to make sure that a lot of the families that came from all over the world may not have the resources to get their refund,” Nobel said.
Ticket-selling platforms Ticketmaster and StubHub have policies that prevent them from issuing refunds until the event organizer makes the decision to issue refunds.
We are still waiting to hear back from Hard Rock Stadium and CONMEBOL regarding the lawsuit and whether they will issue refunds.
