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Crowds line up to see Lebron James visit Seattle
More than 1,000 people lined up outside Seattle Pacific University's Royal Broughman Pavilion for a chance to see their favorite basketball stars in action.
SEATTLE - More than 1,000 people lined up outside Seattle Pacific University's Royal Brougham Pavilion for a chance to see their favorite basketball stars in action.
With such a big crowd, the excitement was at times replaced by frustration and tension, as the tightly-packed fans sweltered in the heat.
Some were pushed against the building, or other fans, during crowd surges.
Some of the NBA's biggest names, including LeBron James, were scheduled to play at The CrawsOver Pro-Am League games Saturday, which were scheduled to start at around 1 p.m. Silas Hill was one of the fans that camped out overnight after LeBron James tweeted that he would be playing at Jamal Crawford's Pro-Am event Saturday.
"We all got here around 12 a.m.," said Silas. "We were like, ‘Cool, we’ll camp out. It will be a nice night.' It’s basically an All Star game here for free."
"We are here to go see Lebron, hopefully," said Christopher Felder. He was excited to bring his son Christopher to see the game, as well.
"It’s peaceful. Ain’t nobody fighting. It’s cool. I see smiles," Felder said about the crowd. "Everybody wants to get up inside and see LeBron."
Valentina Gonzalez and her dad Cesar were also excited to see LeBron James. They believed that's why the lines were so long. "It’s for LeBron James, all the NBA players, the star players," Cesar explained.
As the crowds grew, some fans tried holding their seats by camping out or staking out spaces with portable chairs. Some were successful, but many were pushed aside during what was described as a rush of people at around 8:30 in the morning.
By about 11 a.m., members of a security team were announcing to the crowds that they were not getting in if they were pushing against the door.
"You can stand here and say whatever you like, you are not getting in," said one staff member on a megaphone. Cheers went up when the crowd thought the staff members might open the doors, but after a time, the crowds grew restless and started chanting "Let us in."
By mid-morning, more security had arrived, and directed people to form a second line to the left of the building. Meanwhile, people told FOX 13 News they did their best to keep from getting crushed during crowd surges.
Seattle Police arrived to do traffic control. By then, many who'd camped out had been forced out of line or had chosen to leave due to the conditions.
"You can’t sit down, and people were getting hot," said Silas Hill, who had lost his spot towards the front of the line despite camping out overnight. "We don’t have water. People were very, very dehydrated. When people are rushing, there is a brick wall there and there is nowhere people can go and get out and t’s just a dangerous situation."
"Everybody just filled in, we lost our line," said a mom who had camped with her kids overnight to see the games. She said the family got out of line for safety reasons.
"They were up against the wall, she rescued them for me," she said about her kids.
"My legs were hurting, but I also wanted an autograph from LeBron James," said her son Jaquan.
"I got tired, and I had to go to the bathroom," said Jacory, her other son.
Some neighbors said the event was not well organized and were frustrated with the trash that was left behind.
"The impact on the neighborhood is just really poor," said Jude Adams. "There is garbage all the way to the Rooftop Brewery, all the way that way. It’s a hot mess," she said.
When the security team started letting people into the venue at around 2 p.m., it filled quickly. Many of those who had spent the night camping out for a seat were shut out along with hundreds of others. About an hour after they started letting people in, there was an announcement they were at capacity.
"We didn’t move for like 5 hours really," said Kevin Nguyen, a fan that had been waiting in line.
"I took the day off of work just to be here, and they could have moved it to another arena," said LeJon Robertson.
Jermaine Morgan, an Everett resident, said he'd hoped to see the game and get an autograph. "It feels kind of bad. I’m waiting for LeBron to come out at 5 or 5:30; a lot of people are very upset," he said.
The Seattle Fire Department arrived at the event late in the day after a fire alarm was reportedly triggered, but cleared the scene fairly quickly.
Some people who had stuck around late into the day rushed into a side door to the building at around 6 p.m., but were escorted out soon after that.
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The event is scheduled to continue on Sunday.
A spokesperson for Seattle Pacific University said that members of their facilities team would be taking a look at trash removal and cleanup on the property. We reached out to The CrawsOver organization for comment and are waiting to hear back.