History's Deadliest Stadium Disasters

On February 26, 1918, the Hongkong Jockey Club was holding their annual derby races in the city of British Hong Kong. Yet, what started as a fun celebration at the horse races soon turned into one of the city's deadliest disasters. In the end, more than 600 people perished in the catastrophe, the majority of them either burned to death or were stampeded.

The first day of the races themselves went off fine, at first, but shoddy construction on the temporary stands led to problems on the second day. During one of the races, some of the stands started to collapse, causing a huge panic among the spectators and leading to a massive stampede. Like dominoes falling, more sections started to lose their structural integrity and crumple, turning the area into a disaster zone. To make things worse, a huge fire broke out when the structures fell onto cooking equipment.

The New York Times reported that about 100 people died in the stampede, while the rest of the 600+ deaths came from the fire. An inquiry into the disaster laid most of the blame on government officials for not taking the necessary safety precautions. Today, there is a memorial consisting of pagodas, a memorial arch, and a granite retaining wall, which pays tribute to the victims.

In the more than four decades since the Luzhniki stadium disaster of 1982 in Moscow, Russia, many questions still remain. For years, the Soviet Union denied that an incident had taken place at all, only later releasing partial details and leaving in place much doubt. The date was October 20, 1982, and the Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem clubs were playing against each other at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Authorities had separated the fan bases into two different parts of the stadium, which inadvertently ended up saving many lives.

On the Russian side, many of the fans decided to leave the game a few minutes early with their side ahead 1-0, but after a late Russian goal, many of them had a change of heart and wanted to come back and watch the end. However, when they tried to turn back they met even more fans who were leaving, creating a huge crowd crush. Officially, 66 people died in the pandemonium, the majority of them young adults and children, but some people claim that there were hundreds more.

The Dutch fans on the other side of the stadium avoided the chaos and did not suffer any casualties. Eventually, the stadium chief was held responsible, and many people — including several players — did not know about the disaster until years later and they were shocked to find out. 

As fans of World Cup soccer know, the event is prestigious and only held every four years, like the Olympics. In order to qualify, teams start playing each other years in advance. That was the case in Guatemala on October 16, 1996, when the Guatemala and Costa Rica national teams faced each other in a qualifying match for the 1998 World Cup. The event proved to be extremely popular in Guatemala City where it was being held, leading some people to engage in widespread fraud in the form of counterfeit tickets.

The stadium was only built for 47,000 people, but more than 10,000 additional fans tried to push their way in just before game time. The stadium was already at capacity, but the fans pushed their way past police officers, eventually caving in the main doors and causing a huge stampede and crowd crush. In all, 84 people died in the crowd crush and stampede and more than 100 were injured. Both the Guatemala and Costa Rica presidents were in attendance, and they officially suspended the game. The remaining games at the stadium were canceled, and there were three days of national mourning.

On a day that most Liverpool fans and supporters would like to forget, the Heysel Stadium disaster occurred on May 29, 1985, in Brussels, Belgium. That day, Liverpool (England) was taking on Juventus (Italy) in the 1985 European Cup Championship. It was a highly anticipated match, as Liverpool were the defending champions, but before it could get underway Liverpool's supporters started to attack the Juventus side.

Many supporters on the Juventus side ran away in panic in fear of the English hooligans, but that's where the real tragedy lies. In the disorder, a section of the stadium collapsed, killing 39 and injuring 600 — the majority of which were Juventus fans. The backlash was severe against England, and in fact, all English clubs — not just Liverpool — were banned from competing in the European Cup for several years. Later in 1989, several Liverpool fans were convicted of manslaughter and sent to Belgian jail for their roles in the rioting. Later, it was found that Belgian police also bore some of the responsibility, but it is still one of the blackest marks in English football history.

[Featured image by Rodhullandemu via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

On January 2, 1971, around 80,000 fans crammed into Ibrox Park in Glasgow, Scotland, to watch the hometown Rangers and Celtics take each other on in a soccer match. The stadium had previously been the site of crowd disasters in 1902, 1961, 1967, and 1969, during which dozens had been killed and injured, but there were still significant deficiencies in the stadium's design that caused safety issues ahead of the 1971 match. One of them was Stairway 13, which was responsible for most of the prior problems.

Stairway 13 was not equipped to handle massive influxes of crowds, and when everyone started exiting following the final buzzer anarchy broke out in the stairway. As thousands had already started to make their way down the stairs the metal railings at the top failed, causing people to fall forward onto those below them. This created a huge crowd crush and stampede, leading to many people being trampled and hurt. In the pandemonium, 66 people died and 145 lay injured. Not until Hillsborough nearly two decades later would U.K. soccer again see such tragedy.

The Wowowee stadium disaster happened on Saturday, February 4, 2006, in Manila, Philippines, at the Philsports Arena. Fans of the TV show "Wowowee" had arrived at the stadium hoping to win prizes from the show. Roughly 30,000 people showed up for the event, and many had spent days lining up for tickets for the game show hoping to win one of the various prizes.

Trying to get tickets for the raffle, people in the crowd started pushing forward toward the front gates. Unfortunately, this caused a huge crowd crush, resulting in the deaths of 74 and injuries to more than 500. Many people were trampled under the massive crowd waves, and police struggled to get control of the situation. An immediate investigation into the incident was launched, which included the host of the game show, Willie Revillame.

The event was the one-year anniversary of the show's debut, and of the 30,000 who showed up only the first 300 were actually eligible to participate. Still, even as the crowds grew authorities neglected to do anything as they swelled to 30,000 in the days before the event, leading some to predict a catastrophe was inevitable.

[Featured image by Patrickroque01 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

When politics and sports collide the results are often ugly, and in the case of the Port Said stadium disaster, they turned deadly, too. The date was February 1, 2012, and two rival teams from Egypt — El Masry from Port Said and Al Ahly from Cairo — faced off against each other in a soccer match. Al Ahly ended up on the losing end of the match, and soon their fans also faced the wrath of the El Masry fans, too. Armed with knives, clubs, and stones, the El Masry fans, seemingly with the indifference of the police, terrorized the Al Ahly players and supporters after the match.

They stormed the field and started assaulting their rivals, and more than 70 ended up dying in the melee. Police officers were seen standing around doing nothing as civility and decorum crumbled around them, with Al Ahly stars openly questioning their lack of control. Eventually, the government sent in the army to quell the disorder, but not before things had completely deteriorated.

Allegedly, the police purposefully allowed the El Masry supporters to bring in weapons, and some raised questions about if the police allowed the violence to occur as an act of revenge on the Al Ahly supporters, who were previously linked with anti-government protests. Protestors immediately took to the streets following the incident, and 11 people were sentenced to death for their roles. The rulings were upheld by the Egyptian Supreme Court.