Concert Promoters Say Venues, Not Fans, Are the Bottleneck for Global Tours
Promoters and venue developers told a Los Angeles audience on Nov. 10, 2026 that a shortage of concert venues is holding back touring in many parts of the world. The remarks came at an International Touring Panel at the 2026 Billboard Live Music Summit, moderated by Leila Cobo, Billboard's co-chief content officer. Billboard reported the discussion.
Guillermo "Memo" Parra, director of international events at OCESA, the Mexican promoter, said that every country needs more touring infrastructure. In the music business, that phrase means the buildings and systems that let an act play a city, from arenas to the services around them.
Angie Rho, senior vice president of global touring at AEG, said Asia has strong fan demand but not enough event spaces. Her message was that the audience is there, and the rooms to host it are not.
Steve Collins, president of global venue development at Oak View Group (OVG), offered a sharp figure. For every 10 buildings OVG proposes, he said, only one or two get built. OVG is developing two music-first venues, in Dublin and Madrid, that will have no sports tenants. That means they are designed for concerts rather than for a sports team that shares the building.
India featured in several of the panel's remarks. Nidhish Varughese, a global tour promoter at Live Nation, said the company is working alongside OVG to find sites for arenas in India. He described the Indian market as traditionally a two-city play, Delhi and Mumbai. Artists, he said, now want to perform in several markets.
That shift is part of why planning starts so early. Agents, who book artists' shows, and promoters are locking in tours years ahead, because the number of venues in emerging markets is limited. A tour that needs a particular room has to wait for that room to be free.
For fans outside the usual stops, the shortage shows up as fewer dates and longer waits for a show. For the people who build venues, the panel's message was that a proposal is far from a finished building. Most of the buildings proposed never open, by OVG's own count.
