When Will Indie Venue Owners Get the Funding They Were Promised?
Sean Lynch is in limbo. Like thousands of other independent venue owners across the country, Lynch  who co-owns the Pub Station, a once-thriving concert hall in Billings, Montana  is depending on the money promised by the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, a federal program passed last year to deliver crucial assistance to the live music businesses that have been struggling since the pandemic began. The SVOG passed into law at the end of December 2020, but the Small Business Administration didnt open the application for the grant until the beginning of April 2021. Technical issues delayed the rollout until the end of the month, and by the beginning of June, the administration had only approved 31 grants. Those numbers have improved since the SBA changed the SVOGs leadership team; by late June, the SBA had given out 1,345 grant awards, which is still a fraction of the 10,000 applicants the administration hopes to help by July 4th. In the meantime, many venues are feeling the impact of the SBAs sluggish response, as they rack up more debt and lose out on tour dates to larger and better-financed competitors. At the start of the year, Lynch was hopeful, with the legislation once thought of as a long shot now becoming a reality, thanks to months of advocacy from groups like the National Independent Venue Association. Today, however, hes anxious. He continues to wait for the money the SVOG promised, and hes been forced to watch other businesses reopen from the sidelines while he cant afford to bring back the staff needed to get shows going again. Id say that I am somewhat enthused, to a point, to see more action since this new leadership team started, Lynch says. Its moving in the right direction. I just cant stress the urgency enough, though  because, yes, theyre moving things forward. But there are people who are in absolute dire straits right now. Were getting toward 16 months with literally no income.  Lynch spoke with Rolling Stone about the struggles that venues in smaller markets face, and the lack of urgency hes feeling from the SBA. For five weeks as of Wednesday, my applications been under review, and in all that time, nothings changed in my world, and Ive heard little from the SBA. Theres other folks that have had some requests for changes on documents that theyve uploaded, forms that needed to be changed. Im not in that position. I havent had any requests for changes or new documents  and I have no idea if thats good or bad. Ive just been in the same spot with no communication from SBA, other than an email last month confirming they received my application. We have whats called deferred income from tickets that are coming in from events that are September, October, November. We have dollars coming in as far as ticket revenue  but we cant use that, because shows arent guaranteed. Those dont show up as revenue until that show plays and the expenses are paid out. If I was certain that a grant was coming, I would feel comfortable with using deferred income to pay for something in the current, knowing those expenses would be applied to the grant later. But its still a risk. Maybe Im being too pessimistic, but after the last year, I dont know that theres any other way that I can look at it other than being really cautious. I dont want to be in a position where we use some of that money to hire a staff person and then something else happens with Covid and Im required to refund all these tickets back and those dollars arent there. We usually book three to six months out, but right now were getting a lot of last-minute requests, and thats definitely because of Covid. Everybody needs money, so theyre taking any opportunity that they can. And I want to take every opportunity I can, too. I just cant do it. I always refer to Billings as a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday stop. It isnt the main day, but touring artists need money Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Were an important piece to that touring schedule, because acts cant make it financially work sometimes if they dont have these markets. But without the grants, we cant move. Were doing shows as we can, but in the past two or three weeks, Ive turned down around 50 shows because we cant get a full staff back. The influx of calls from artists and agents is really heavy right now. I look week by week and determine what we can or cannot staff based on what we have right now. Staffing per show is a little easier for me, because I can pay them after the show. Its the office staff for me, the marketing, its the graphic design. Thats what Im struggling with. People ask me why I dont start interviewing people. Building relationships with touring acts, especially in the smaller market scene, is key to making sure those artists have an excellent experience so if and when they get to a point where theyre drawing a larger crowd, theyre going to remember you. Were in a difficult spot because in tertiary markets, If you dont take those acts, not only will they likely not come to your venue in the future, they may never come to the market at all. They didnt get the support in Billings, Montana, so they go somewhere else. They could go to Wyoming, somewhere else in Montana or Idaho. Then youre never in the forefront of somebodys mind. Im frustrated because with NIVA, weve done our jobs, our job is done. The House and Senate have done their jobs and listened to what we did. They responded to us by voting in this SVOG bill. But then it was handed off to people who didnt seem to have that urgency or didnt know that urgency. NIVA and all our partners with Congress and the White House, we got this done. Now its the responsibility of somebody to implement it, and thats where the fumble is. Here we are, continuing to have to reach out to our congresspeople and senators to say, Youve been a total champion for us, but we need your help again, because we cant get what you developed for us into peoples bank accounts. And thats a hard spot. Its like a broken pipe in a house. It keeps dripping and gradually getting worse. If that was your house, you would be addressing that immediately because its an emergency. Were in a swimming pool right now, up to our necks in water waiting for help. And they just dont see it.