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The Astroworld tragedy<\/a> overshadowed everything else in a dark month for the industry.<\/p>\n Ten concert-goers died, with the victims ranging in age from nine to 27 years old, and 300 were injured in a catastrophic crowd crush that will undoubtedly have implications for all of the event\u2019s stakeholders and spectators \u2013 and the industry as a whole \u2013 for many years to come.<\/p>\n Texas Governor Greg Abbott swiftly announced plans to form a concert safety task force<\/a> to stop a tragedy such as this from happening again, but a barrage of lawsuits<\/a> will keep Astroworld in the headlines well into an uncertain future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In other news, Oak View Group (OVG), the global venue development, advisory and investment company for sports and live entertainment sectors, completed its acquisition<\/a> of venue management and hospitality provider Spectra. OVG counts the recently opened Climate Pledge Arena at Seattle Center, UBS Arena in New York and Co-Op Live, which will open in Manchester in 2023, among its clientele.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, a new trend that seemed to gain traction in 2021 was digital collectibles \u2013 namely non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Live Nation announced it would be offering fans<\/a> the chance to collect NFT ticket stubs, called Live Stubs, at a select number of its North America shows. The question here is: Are NFTs the next big ticketing disruptor<\/a>? We might find out in 2022.<\/p>\n However, not all ticket-holders are ready to embrace Web 3.0 \u2013 or even mobile ticketing, for that matter, as explained by Everton\u2019s senior manager of ticketing Georgia Bekyra to TheTicketingBusiness.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bekyra said that the club had not seen persuasive evidence<\/a> that fans were fully ready for physical cards to be scrapped, even though the adoption of mobile ticketing had expanded across the sporting world during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Image:\u00a0Frank Schwichtenberg<\/a>\/(CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/a>\/Edited for size<\/p>\n<\/div>\n