NEW YORK (AP) — A Jay-Z concert at Yankee Stadium was delayed for hours Sunday night after hundreds of fans without tickets tried to push their way into the show, forcing the iconic New York City stadium to temporarily close entrances before the rapper could take the stage after midnight.
After the long holdup, Jay-Z started the show at 12:17 a.m. Monday and told the audience that “somebody rushed the door” and that he didn’t want to start performing and have “people get trampled” on their way in.
“Really sorry for the inconvenience, but I had to make sure everybody was OK,” he told the crowd before thanking them for their patience and promising a “good time tonight.”
In a statement, the Yankees, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Live Nation said hundreds of people in large groups without tickets “stormed over peaceful ticketholders, and in some cases, breached security” and the stadium had to shutter entrances for an extended period of time before being able to cautiously reopen.
Video from outside the stadium showed a large crowd of people standing around an entrance. A different video from inside the stadium showed people rushing inside through an open door before several security guards were able to stop additional people from entering.
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said it did not have information about arrests at the stadium over the incident.