SBA Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Portal Crashed within Hours of Opening
A screen capture of the current SVOG Portal Message after being suspended.
After months of waiting, The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program Portal looked like the gateway to new beginnings for many struggling venues across the nation. Thursday, April 8th at 12PM EST, the portal opened to applicants, and then the technical issues ensued. Within hours, the application portal was inaccessible.
The Small Business Administration has addressed that it will be utilizing Twitter to update applicants of the progress on the portal. Until further notice, the SVOG portal has been suspended.
“Due to technical difficulties, SBA has temporarily suspended the SVOG application portal. SBA is working closely with the portal vendors to reopen as soon as possible. SBA will share advance notice of the time and date before the reopening so all applicants can be prepared and to ensure equitable access. Applicants may continue to register for a new account.”
UPDATE: The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant application portal remains temporarily suspended, and will through the weekend, while we work to resolve technical issues. When a reopening date is determined, we'll provide updates in advance so that applicants have time to prepare.
— SBA (@SBAgov) April 9, 2021
Those venues trying to apply through the SVOG portal were greeted with different errors at each step of the application process. Those venues that hoped to save their application progress and try at a later date will now need to start from the beginning again - as the SBA has destroyed all collected data thus far - creating a level playing field for all venues when applications reopen. The SBA communicated via Twitter that they did not accept any applications nor did they distribute any funds at this time.
For the latest updates on the status of the SVOG applications, please follow SBA on Twitter, or register for an application account.