WASHINGTON D.C. (CelebrityAccess) — The SBA now says that desperate venue operators and concert promoters will have to wait just a little longer before funds from the Shuttered Venue Operator Grant program will be disbursed.
On Monday night, the SBA messaged applicants to say that it “anticipates SVOGs awards will start in late May,” a full five months after Congress approved funds and six weeks after the first SVOG application was submitted.
In December, more than $16 billion was earmarked by the US Congress and signed into law to help the independent live sector devastated by a year of COVUD caused shutdowns.
Applications for the grant program was originally opened on April 8th but closed again just hours after the initial launch amid technical issues. Repairs and upgrades took 17 days before the program finally began accepting applications again on April 26th.
In the first 24 hours after launch, more than 17,000 began the SVOG application process.