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 venue to temporarily close entrances before the rapper could take the stage after midnight. After the long holdup, Jay-Z started the show at 12:17am 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, per the AP.
“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 that hundreds of people in large groups without tickets “stormed over peaceful ticketholders, and in some cases, breached security” and that the stadium had to shutter entrances for an extended period of time before reopening with the help of the NYPD. It was not clear how many ticket-less people got in. The NYPD did not have any information about arrests.