Some of these arenas don’t have enough exits.
The MGM Grand Arena only has one way in and one way out. After Pacquiao vs. Marquez III, when Pacquiao won a close controversial decision many of Marquez fans got rowdy and few people were injured, including a media member who was hit in the head by a bottle thrown from the upperdeck.
The situation in Indonesia had a far worse outcome.
Seventeen people were killed in a stadium stampede after spectators rioted to protest a local boxer’s loss in a championship match in eastern Indonesia, officials said Monday.
Youth and Sports Minister Roy Suryo said the victims – 11 of them women – were trampled to death as about 1,500 spectators scrambled out the overcrowded stadium to escape the riot that broke out just before midnight Sunday. Kota Lama Sport Stadium has a capacity of 500 to 600, he said. Police said it had two working exits.
The riot happened after the final of the 128-pound division between Alvius Rumkorem and Yulianus Pigome, who Suryo said are from different tribes.
Points awarded by a panel of judges to Rumkorem triggered protests by Pigome supporters, Suryo said.
The losing boxer’s supporters threw chairs at the judges and the winner’s supporters responded by throwing bottles and broken chairs, panicking people in the stadium, said Lt. Col. Gede Sumerta, a provincial police spokesman.