Copa America final adds to long list of major events at Dolphins' Hard Rock Stadium
This weekend, Lionel Messi will play before a sellout crowd at Hard Rock Stadium. A few months ago, Max Verstappen, Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz competed there. In a few months, Taylor Swift arrives for a series of shows.
Say this for the home of the Miami Dolphins: There's a lot more than football happening there.
The Copa America soccer final on Sunday pitting Messi and Argentina against Colombia is just the latest in a long line of major events coming to the home of the Dolphins, which is precisely what stadium and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross envisioned when he began spending more than $1 billion of his personal fortune — private money, it should be noted — to remodel the facility and create a global entertainment destination.
“I don’t think there is another place in the world where all of those people have kind of showcased their talents in one place," said Tom Garfinkel, who is Vice Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium, as well as managing partner of the Formula 1 race that happens there. "And we’re proud of that.”
The Formula 1 track built at the stadium is the site of a race that has created more than $1 billion in economic impact for the area in its first three years of existence. Ross kept South Florida’s biggest tennis event in the area once Key Biscayne no longer was a viable host by building a tennis center at the stadium good enough to keep the world’s best players happy.
Bad Bunny and Lady Gaga each played there two years ago, Beyonce played there last year, and people are paying what are believed to be record prices to see Messi on Sunday night — some secondary markets had the lowest-priced in-the-door cost Saturday at around $1,500 per ticket. For the best seats, it wasn’t hard to find ones priced at $10,000 or more, sometimes much more.
“Obviously, with a large Colombian and Argentinean population here in South Florida, the demand for this event has been huge," Garfinkel said. "And with a lot of people coming in from out of town, this is just a huge match. And everybody’s very excited about it.”
This was the plan — or the hope, anyway — all along.
Garfinkel was hired in 2013 and remembers going to the top of the stadium, in suit and tie, to watch a Dolphins game. He lasted five minutes. He was sweating through his suit and reported back to Ross that he had no idea why people would endure the heat and humidity there to watch a game.
And that's when the plans were born to make the stadium best-in-class for Dolphins fans: an open-air canopy to give most fans some level of shade even in the sunniest hours, tons of new amenities and technology, even taking out about 10,000 seats to have additional space to enhance the experience.
“The first goal was to create a great environment for Miami Dolphins football and a great fan experience and to reimagine what that experience could be," Garfinkel said. “When Steve and I first really started talking about everything, it was really focused on creating a great experience for Dolphins football fans. And then it sort of evolved into this.”
With soccer, F1 and concerts factored in, along with Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes home games, the stadium will welcome at least 2 million fans in 2024 and make this the third consecutive year it has reached that figure. And 2026 should be even bigger with the College Football Playoff title game that year along with seven World Cup matches — which could mean another Messi match in a few years.
Garfinkel's phone has been ringing nonstop with people trying to see Messi on Sunday. It's a great problem.
“Miami’s a dynamic city unlike any city in the country," Garfinkel said. “And we knew if we took advantage of that and made a destination site at this campus — if you will, a destination for the greatest events in the world take place, where people come from all around the world — that would benefit all of South Florida.”
___
AP Copa America coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/copa-america
