Ted Nugent Concert Riot Hollywood Sportatorium
On 6 July 1980, a Ted Nugent concert at the Hollywood Sportatorium in Florida was linked to a riot or standoff after deputies arrested suspected marijuana smokers. Contemporary wire-report snippets describe deputies and prisoners being besieged at a trailer for about an hour, with injury totals reported differently across sources.
What happened
Core Findings
Summary
Arrests, a trailer, and a crowd standoff
The research file ties the incident to Ted Nugent’s 6 July 1980 concert at the Hollywood Sportatorium. The show date is supported by concert-listing research, while contemporary wire-report snippets describe a disorder event near Hollywood, Florida.
The central account is that deputies arrested suspected marijuana smokers and placed them in a trailer. A crowd then surrounded or besieged the trailer, holding deputies and prisoners at bay for almost an hour.
Injury reporting is not tidy. AP-style reporting says one deputy was critically injured with a possible skull fracture and that 20 other deputies and security guards were injured. A UPI formulation says one of 20 injured Broward County deputy sheriffs remained hospitalized. The safest reading is that injuries were reported, but the exact total and category split are not settled in this source set.
Review disputed details →Quick View
Incident Highlights
The concert and reported riot took place on 6 July 1980.
Wire-report snippets say deputies and prisoners were besieged for almost an hour.
Sources differ on whether this means 20 deputies, 20 other people, or 20 plus one critical deputy.
One AP search-result snippet reports about $3,000 damage to the trailer.
Chronology
Known Sequence
Concert listed for 6 July
The research file places Ted Nugent at the Hollywood Sportatorium on 6 July 1980, supported by concert-listing research.
Deputies make arrests
Contemporary wire-report snippets say deputies arrested suspected marijuana smokers at or around the concert.
Prisoners held in trailer
The arrested people were reportedly placed in a trailer, which became the focal point of the crowd disorder.
Crowd surrounds deputies
Reports describe deputies and prisoners being besieged or held at bay for almost an hour.
Injuries and damage reported
AP and UPI accounts report injured deputies, while one AP snippet also notes damage to the trailer.
Date supported
The research file identifies 6 July 1980 through concert-listing support and linked wire coverage.
Venue identified
The Hollywood Sportatorium is consistently named, though address and place-name wording varies across sources.
Injury totals conflict
AP, UPI and later retrospective wording do not line up cleanly on total injuries or who was counted.
Access limits matter
Some contemporary material was only visible through search-result text or archive snippets, so the page avoids hard certainty where full text was not opened.
The riot/standoff itself is supported by contemporary wire-report snippets and later venue histories. Exact injury totals, arrest counts, attendance and damage figures are weaker and should not be treated as fully settled.
Source Issues
Conflicting Information
Disputed Detail
Injury totals
The strongest conflict in the file is how many people were injured and how the casualties were grouped.
Reports one deputy in critical condition with a possible skull fracture and 20 other deputies and security guards injured.
Reports that one of 20 Broward County deputy sheriffs injured remained hospitalized early the next day.
Editorial note: AP can be read as 21 injured if taken literally; UPI frames the count as 20 injured deputy sheriffs. A later retrospective gives another wording. Do not present one exact injury total as settled.
Disputed Detail
Place-name wording for the venue
Sources describe the Hollywood Sportatorium using different locality and address wording.
Lists the show at Hollywood Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, Florida.
Gives 17171 Pines Blvd and labels the city as Hollywood, Florida, while also noting older West Hollywood Boulevard wording.
Editorial note: this appears to reflect changing address, jurisdiction and historic venue wording rather than a different venue.
Unverified Details
The exact start time was not verified in the research set.
No exact attendance figure for the 6 July 1980 Ted Nugent show was verified.
The exact number arrested during the riot was not verified beyond snippet-based and retrospective leads.
The file notes an AP snippet mentioning about $3,000 damage, but the figure was not fully verified through opened report text.
No verified fatality source was found in this research pass.
Evidence Base
Reference Cards
AP / East Oregonian via Newspapers.com / News Article
Deputies held at bay during rock concert riot
7 July 1980
Search-result text states that a Broward County deputy sheriff was in critical condition with a possible skull fracture after a riot at a Ted Nugent concert near Hollywood, Florida. It also says 20 other deputies and security guards were injured.
Visit Source →AP / Anchorage Daily News via Newspapers.com / News Article
Anchorage Daily News report on the Ted Nugent concert riot
7 July 1980
Search-result text states that 35 sheriff’s deputies and 15 suspected marijuana smokers were besieged for almost an hour. Another result snippet reports injuries to 20 other deputies and security guards and about $3,000 damage to the trailer.
Visit Source →UPI / Sanford Herald archive via University of Central Florida / News Article
Untitled UPI report in Sanford Herald PDF
7 July 1980
Search-result text says one of 20 Broward County deputy sheriffs injured in rioting at a Ted Nugent concert remained hospitalized early the next day. This supports the incident while using a different injury-count formulation from the AP account.
Visit Source →The Rock File / Website Article
South Florida’s Rowdy Rock Palace
16 March 2011
Retrospective venue-history article stating that in 1980 Ted Nugent fans rioted after police arrested people for suspected marijuana use and held them in a trailer, followed by an hour-long standoff.
Visit Source →Prime via QG Digital Publishing / Website Article
Fast Times At The Hollywood Sportatorium
30 June 2018
Retrospective on the venue. Search-result text says a melee at a Ted Nugent show involved nearly 500 people and sent one police deputy to hospital with a skull fracture.
Visit Source →Led Zeppelin official website / Website Article
Hollywood Sportatorium
No page date stated
Venue page used for location tracing. It gives the site as 17171 Pines Blvd and also records older wording as 16661 West Hollywood Boulevard in then-unincorporated Broward County.
Visit Source →City of Pembroke Pines / Website Article
April 3, 2019 Spotlight
3 April 2019
City document recording commission support for designation of the Hollywood Motorsports Park and Hollywood Sportatorium site as a Florida Heritage Site. Useful for site-history context only.
Visit Source →Broward Digital Archives / Website Article
Hollywood Sun-Tattler venue reference
Search result only; exact issue context not fully opened
Search-result text identifies the Hollywood Sportatorium at 16661 Pines Blvd and gives a 15,532-seat capacity. Useful as a location lead only, not riot evidence.
Visit Source →Setlist.fm / Website Article
Ted Nugent at Hollywood Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
Date not shown on page in source notes
Concert listing used in the research file to support the date of the Ted Nugent show as 6 July 1980 at Hollywood Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, Florida.
Visit Source →Open Sources
