The Small Business Administration plans to distribute grants from its $16b Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program next week. Technical glitches have delayed the program.
More than 12,000 applications have been submitted from concert halls, theaters, clubs and other live-entertainment venues since the program was announced. The SVOG website shut within hours after opening on 4/8; it wasn’t fixed and reopened until 4/23.
Audrey Fix Schaefer, a spokeswoman for the National Independent Venue Association, told the Wall Street Journal “These small businesses are going under while $16 billion is waiting for them. The delay in delivering funding is causing the exact opposite effect of the intended bill to save venues.”
