BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Music venues in Western New York looking to survive financially during the pandemic are banking on federal government relief, but they are frustrated that they can't apply to get money.
The relief was from the "Shuttered Venue Operators Grant", a $15 billion allocation passed by Congress in December. At least $2 billion of the funds are intended to go to small employers with up to 50 full-time employees. Despite the grant money being signed into law two months ago, local music venues still can't apply for the funds because the Small Business Administration is not accepting applications.
Each business can quality for grants of up to 45% of their 2019 gross earned revenue, which would give them a lifeline to survive amid the pandemic that has kept them shuttered for the last year.
"It's significant and it's significantly more than the PPP that is basically two times or three times your payroll," Chris Ring, co-owner of Rec Room in Buffalo, said. "We had a really good 2019 so we can sustain the pandemic, but a lot of the independent venues in Buffalo and New York State and across the country aren't in that situation."
Ring said the money could "make or break" the entire music business and that unlike payroll protection loans, the money does not have to be paid back.
"You're going to see a lot of venues make the decision to take the second round of PPP to kick the can down the road, hoping that in the next stimulus there is something out from a grant standpoint they can take advantage of," Ring said. "The whole point of this thing was to save the music industry and save these independent venues."
The Small Business Administration sent the following statement to WBEN:
"The SBA is building the SVOG program from the ground up and working expeditiously to ensure all the mechanisms required by law and the federal grant application/awarding process, as well as front-end protections, are in place to ensure these vital grants are delivered to those the law intended to assist. While the agency builds and prepares to open the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, the dedicated SBA webpage, www.sba.gov/svogrant, which includes frequently asked questions, video tutorials and other SVOG details, is the best source for information.
As SBA personnel develop this new grant program and continue to deliver other much-needed economic aid programs, the agency will continue to update information, including the FAQs, as it becomes available and offer educational trainings on program requirements. Right now, potential applicants can work to get registered in the federal government's System for Award Management (SAM.gov), as this will be required for an entity to receive an SVOG (as it is for all federal grants).
The federal government has several required steps that go through other federal agencies that need to be met for a grant posting, which the SBA is working on quickly to get in place and processed through the appropriate channels. The SBA also has consulted (and continues to consult) with other federal agencies throughout the development process and brought on additional staff to administer the SVOG program."
The SBA did not disclose a potential timeline for when the applications will open.
"We need the money," Ring said. "We need it yesterday."
There was some development this week in the SBA. The Senate committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship met on Wednesday to consider the nomination of President Joe Biden's SBA nominee, Isabel Guzman.. The committee passed the nomination of Guzman by a 15-5 vote and is now headed to the full Senate for a final vote.
Despite the developments, Ring said he's not going to get his hopes up yet because of constant changes with the SBA.
"(The confirmation) should have been done back in January," Ring said. "This wasn't new. This is something we've been pushing for the better part of 2020. It was always included, whether it was the republicans bill or democrat's bill, the Save Our Stages Bill was always included in those things. The fact that the SBA didn't really take any initiative here to think forward, knowing how much it's meant to the businesses, is really frustrating."
Ring said venues are frustrated and even though there are "pop-up" events in New York City, he said there's no venues being used and no ticket prices or staff.
"In theory, there's really nothing from a monetary standpoint being done to help the venues," Ring said. "We know there's still money left over from the grant that they received in March, over $1 billion that has been unspent. That would be great. Even if they allocated $50 million for the arts committee. We were told 'no'."
Because venues book shows approximately 6 months out, Ring said that if enough people can get the vaccine by July, they couldn't host any artists until 2022 at the earliest.
