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Eleven lanterns were lit during a vigil after dark near the
U.S. Bank Arena on the city's waterfront, one for each of the
victims crushed to death on Dec. 3, 1979, outside the venue,
then known as Riverfront Coliseum.
In addition to the 11 fans who died, 26 others were injured when
thousands of concertgoers waiting to get into the coliseum
rushed the gates after they heard the band going through its
sound check and thought that the performance had started.
The British rockers went on with the concert, unaware of the
tragedy until Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey were informed
after the show.
"To help you bear that pain and to remember those who we lost 35
years ago tonight, I think it is proper and fitting to erect a
memorial for them here on the Cincinnati riverfront," Mayor John
Cranley said to friends and relatives of the victims attending
the vigil on Wednesday night.
The stampede was blamed in part on the combination of unreserved
general admission and festival seating, which prompted many fans
to show up hours early to get as close to the stage as possible.
Only 3,500 of the 18,348 tickets sold were reserved.
The city banned unreserved seating for 25 years after the
tragedy. When the City Council reinstated festival seating in
2004, it did so with restrictions such as requiring additional
emergency personnel and increasing the floor space-to-person
ratio.
The Who announced its 50th anniversary tour in October. The band
kicks off the tour in April and continues through November. No
Cincinnati date is planned.
(Reporting by Steve Bittenbender in Louisville, Kentucky;
Additional reporting by Mark Guarino; Editing by Steve Gorman
and Michael Perry)
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