SVOG Application Portal Opens Successfully; Applicants Now Await Aid

After a first attempt marred by technical errors, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s second opening of the applications portal for its Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program on April 26 was met with a much more widely positive response. 

While Pollstar was aware of individual cases where applicants were unable to access the portal or use it properly – with problems relating to browser functionality, authenticator codes, auto-population of form fields, and document uploading – the majority of those spoken to said the process was straightforward and functional. This was a sharp contrast with the original opening on April 8 which saw the portal close in several hours when technical errors rendered the site unusable. 

The National Independent Venue Association gave voice to this sentiment, initially issuing a statement of gratitude on April 27, but followed up by stating on April 30 that it hopes applications will be processed quickly so aid can get to venues in such dire need.

“NIVA members applied for SVOG as soon as the portal reopened, but there’s been no communication from the SBA, and no applications processed,” NIVA stated. “We’re totally hamstrung until this money goes out because we can’t rehire, book events, or put shows on sale. We need these applications reviewed and grants awarded ASAP. To give perspective, PPP was funded in 2 days.

“Yes, the website worked, but the industry is still desperate and in need support now to survive. It’s been 4.5 months since Congress came together on a bipartisan basis for emergency relief to save our stages.”

Some sources were colorful in describing the obstacles faced and the relief felt from having finally completed their application.

“Well, that was harrowing,” Frank Riley, founder of High Road Touring and executive board member of the National Independent Talent Organization said in a statement. “From April 8 to April 26, we were all swinging from a rope. Daily, a thread would break and finally, down to the very end… we made it. We got through. We saw the endpoint of all we have worked toward this past year. 

“Once again, the camaraderie and support we have offered each other was manifest throughout the day, either on emails or by text, or just shouting out the window. Now, we all have to wait for the process to make its way through the SBA system and continue to hope for the best.”

Walter Kinzie, CEO of Encore Live, told Pollstar that he spent the evening of April 8 connecting colleagues to mental health resources as the situation appeared so dire for their business that they were considering suicide, but April 26 was much better.

The secondary opening date was pushed from April 24 to April 26 after many in the industry expressed the need to prepare for the applications process, which requires a substantial amount of documents on-hand, proving ownership of various assets and details related to their business. Also notable was that the SBA said funds would be issued on a first-come, first-served basis.

On April 27, approximately 24 hours after the opening of the SVOG portal, 17,000 individual applications for SVOG aid had been submitted, according to multiple sources.

Kinzie worked as a nonpaid consultant with the SBA on the creation of the SVOG program and has been lobbying for it with Congressman Roger Williams (R-TX) since it was proposed as legislation in the Save Our Stages Act, which Williams co-sponsored. 

The SVOG program’s initial creation in the Economic Aid to Hard Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits and Venues Act from Congress in December incorporated legislation from the Save Our Stages Act and charged the SBA with implementing the program. It was later modified to allow businesses to apply for Paycheck Protection Program loans and SVOG funds in March and, after Joe Biden appointed Isabel Guzman as administrator of the SBA, also in March, pressure mounted to deliver the funds to venues in dire need. Williams was also very vocal in urging the SBA to work quickly to get the applications portal working properly after the first failed attempt.

“The point I made with Congressman Williams was, there is a good friend of mine, Pat Green, who is a musician,” Kinzie said. “I sat down with Pat and we mapped out that whenever he does a concert, 173 people get a paycheck. 

“You have a midrange artist that is putting nearly 200 people to work every time he does a show, from stagehands to radio personnel, the person at the rent-a-car center, the bus drivers, the bartenders, the waiting staff, PR and marketing, lighting and trusses … Once I told the Congressman that, it really opened his eyes to the idea that we need to put people in place to really create opportunities.”

The spirit of the SVOG program has always been to get money into places that will allow shows to stage and get the industry working again, Kinzie said, and he hopes that the SBA will not be too rigid in recognizing who invests in the industry and creates opportunity within the ecosystem. 

“On April 8, when I filled out the application as a promoter, if I couldn’t prove that I owned a lighting rig and a down-rig and had a designated space for concerts, I was disqualified.” Kinzie said. “That’s horseshit, that is not how promoters work. Promoters do not need to own venues. We have vendors. We create the windfall.”

“The same is happening with companies like Michael Strickland’s Bandit Lites. The name of his company would insinuate he is a third party vendor that benefits from windfall [created by other entities], but Bandit Lites is also a creator of shows, a theatrical producer. For those reasons, it should be entitled to receive this money and go produce these events that create this windfall.”

One source told Pollstar that April 8 marked a shift in their dealings with the SBA, as prior to the first failed launch they seemed to be a bunch of “bureaucratic assholes,” but after that they seemed more open to learning the details of the industry and creating a functioning system.

For his part, Strickland told Pollstar that the SVOG FAQs state a number of businesses are intentionally excluded from qualifying for aid, despite the fact that these specific exclusions are not written into the legislation from Congress. The SVOG FAQs do indeed state that staging, lighting, sound, cast and other “support for live performing arts events or [companies] which showcase performers or pre-packaged productions to potential buyers” are not eligible to apply for the aid, as they are designated as “support” for the eligible entities (such as venues, promoters, and agents). 

Kinzie said he completed his application for SVOG funds and fully expects to be approved, and while he has suffered great losses, having lost his house, office and cars – he has a plan to use that money to once again bring more than 3,000 people on payroll in 2021. 

Going forward, SBA told Pollstar it will sort applications into three groups: those with 90% or greater revenue loss between April and December 2020; 70% or greater loss; and 25% or greater loss. 

Companies in the highest tier of loss will be given priority in aid, and applications will be processed in the order they were completed. 

Groups in the first and second tier of loss will be processed during 14-day windows, and the third tier of loss will be processed until everyone’s application has been resolved or funds run out. Sources tell Pollstar applications are not expected to close until the $16.2 billion in funds run out, and a number of legislators are working to secure additional funding for the live sector to accommodate as many qualifying businesses as possible. 

Strickland notes that, at this stage, the best thing all live professionals can do is apply for aid, as the government can put more money into the program as it did for the Paycheck Protection Program. And, in addition to federal relief programs, there are more targeted relief programs at the state level in New Jersey and districts like Washington, D.C.

While there is still time to go until SVOG money is in the hands of the live industry, Kinzie said one positive takeaway from the last year has been the sense of community built among independent live professionals. 

He started a Facebook page called SVOG Act Now to provide information for those trying to navigate the aid system, and while he was initially responding to every post himself, there is now a full-fledged community of people supporting each other with all kinds of issues and challenges on the page, with lots of dialogue and camaraderie. 

“I don’t know what movement is going to come out of this, but I can tell you it’s not time to let our guard down, it’s not time to lessen the pressure. We’re staying with it and we’re staying after it,” Kinzie said. “But I will tell you, if the completion of this process looks anything like what yesterday looked like, I’m really excited to get this thing across the finish line and I think it’s going to be a pretty easy process.”