In The Latest Episode of Underestimating Latin American Football---
The Copa America championship match was an absolute disaster, and it was essentially a miracle it didn’t result in death or too much violence outside scuffles with the police and security. Honestly we should be very grateful it wasn’t worse considering the overwhelming circumstances. Lots of finger-pointing and lawsuits will be levied over the months and years as the venue hit capacity and as they should. Also didn’t help that the game was a tense chaotic scene that needed extra time to determine a winner. We should all be grateful they even ended up playing at all.
We saw people paying thousands of dollars for tickets and thousands more for travel and other expenses to see Messi, Argentina, Colombia, only to end up getting kicked out because the stadium stupidly (and expectedly) hit capacity before all the actual ticketholders were able to even enter. It is very sad that people missed out, and it appears the venue didn’t have enough for people to do -outside- the stadium that could have alleviated some of the frustrations. Its also sad to see some that did have their tickets miss out on making it to the game itself, whether it be because of overwhelming foot traffic, car traffic, or stressed-out security raising the white flag once the national anthems were sung.
However, I’m here to argue in favor for the stadium climbers, for the box office crashers, for those who snuck in through the ventilation, for those who camped outside the Fort Lauderdale hotel along with the Colombian national team along with the 200,000+ Latinos who wanted a piece of the action——to an extent. I’m here to defend those who just wanted so badly to enter the match and was met with a wall of obstacles ranging from Ticketmaster being price-gougingly stupid to scalpers being greedy to once again Miami never thinking about their population and underestimating just how damn Latino the region actually is. Yes, I do wish the behavior was better, but when there’s essentially no way out of the parking lot and immense traffic and no way to actually see the game from outside the gates, desperation and determination took over.
This argument about “defending criminals” is similar to those who get mad at the CVS and Walgreens thieves as opposed to the companies themselves that have helped cultivate a culture and scenarios that leads to people being forced to steal in order to survive. You think the Colombians and Argentinians who tried sneaking in weren’t actually trying to purchase tickets? You think their Plan A from the beginning was to enter the venue without forking over the cash? Please.
Hard Rock Stadium or CONMEBOL (stories are mixed currently) was rumored to have turned down additional security, but they also didn’t consider hanging on to a select number of tickets until the day of the game, and most disappointingly turned down the opportunity to have watch parties so people can watch the game from outside the stadium. The biggest Latin American soccer match in literally years and not even a single watch party? What did they think was going to happen?
How dare Miami be given the privilege to host the final and not even consider the option of hosting watch parties within the venue and maybe in surrounding venues to better accommodate those missing out on the game.
Miami has once again underestimated Latin Americans, Latin American culture, and has disrespected the importance and cultural significance of this tourney, period. A tournament that had already been poorly organized, poorly managed, poorly officiated, poorly maintained hit fever pitch with a region of Florida forgetting just how many Latinos live within the county. Miami-Dade has over 40 different police precincts, and yet couldn’t create a cohesive plan in sending enough police to better-dictate traffic flow and help the employees in the front lines of the venue?
I know there will be some that will argue that Hard Rock never has issues with the Super Bowl and other events, wanting to point the finger towards the people themselves (and being openly racist along the way). Of course, they’re also going to ignore the extreme measures that are taken over in Europe, especially in England and Italy. None of those added measures were implemented and even considered because everyone in charge saw this as just another game. This just adds to the disconnect that the United States has towards the heartbeat of the sport and these tourneys.
This isn’t a game, this is life, soccer is life, a grand majority of people in Latin America from birth have soccer and their national identity in their blood. One of the very few things people and entire families can carry with them from their homeland is that special love and connection with their national teams playing their favorite game. Super Bowl has absolutely nothing on Copa America, and Miami got a rude awakening of what might happen in 2026 if they don’t learn from this.
Biggest of all however, we can’t continue allowing scalpers and predatory scalper-friendly apps to crash the prices and price out the vast majority of soccer fans and Latin Americans who would give their homes to attend these kinds of events. The prices were already in the thousands of dollars weeks before we even got to see who made it to the final. Combine that with the already-expensive living costs within Miami-Dade, from insurance to rent to tolls to health to everything else other developed countries sometimes take for granted. I’m still not fully recovered from seeing certain advertisements calling Hialeah the “Brooklyn of Miami.” ewww.
The Euro Cup final initially cost $85 while establishing fixed prices throughout the tourney, while not a single Copa America game in the United States sold their tickets at less than $100.
This can’t continue.
Latinos stateside cannot continue being priced out while the richer folks from out-of-region, out-of-country scoop up all the perks and get to enjoy the richer things the United States offers. Colombians and Argentinians living in South Florida deserved an actual opportunity, and shouldn’t have to sacrifice months of paychecks for a game, a piece of their culture that they love so dearly—and I extend this complaint to the entire tournament of expensive games in expensive venues in far-off locations (side-note: why didn’t they centralize the tournament to whether the Atlantic coast, the northwest, or California/southwest?).
More importantly, they deserved at the very -least- to have the chance to properly tailgate and watch the game from right outside the stadium. Whether it be the World Baseball Classic (which also had its share of problems) or the Copa America, its tiring to see events Latino-dominated always being treated like an afterthought.
Everyone deserved better that night, from the poor employees and security who was not properly staffed and prepped for the game, to the viewing public who had to wait over an hour for the game to start, to those who couldn’t make it to the game, to the soccer fans in the frontlines who have decided to defy the stupid prices and shoddy organization of CONMEBOL by battling for an opportunity to see their country, their culture, their beautiful game—-and of course also see Messi’s poor busted ankles.