KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Live concerts and plays have been put on hold as occupancy limits along with social-distancing rules have essentially made it impossible to have a large in-person audience.
Forty-one U.S. senators, including Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts from Kansas, signed a letter urging Congress to provide additional stimulus funding to help performance venues across the country, which have yet to receive CARES Act funding despite massive financial losses.
The Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, hopes that letter turns into action. The venue has been closed since mid-March.
"We need some assistance on the short-term," Uptown Theater owner Larry Sells said. "We have mortgages to pay, we have people to keep on the payroll and we have buildings that need to be taken care of and we have neighborhoods that need to be invested in."
Sells said the Uptown Theater has been forced to postpone or cancel 40 concerts so far, which represents a large chunk of lost revenue. It also trickles down to the city and state not receiving some much needed tax revenue.
"We’d normally be sending $50,000 to $100,000 a month to the state and the city and everythingm and now we’re sending zero,” Sells said.
Since his industry plans so far in advance, Sells worries that it could be a year to 18 months before the lineup of shows is on a normal schedule again.
Without some financial help now, Sells is concerned many theaters will be closing for good.
"We’re not like these big corporations that are just waiting to take us over as soon as we fail economically now and then," Sells said. "You’re going to have just one uniform music scene, and you’re not going to have people out there trying to get the small bands — developing them, taking them to the different stages and then getting them to be national hits."
The open letter to Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer notes that "live event venues were among the first to close as COVID-19 spread across the country and they are likely the last to reopen."
While Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, didn't sign the letter, he sent a statement to 41 Action News signaling possible support for some form of relief in the future:
“Kansas City has a great live music scene that’s an important part of the local economy and quality of life in the area. Like many industries, venues across Missouri have been hard hit as they’ve done their part to help keep their staff and patrons safe. Congress moved quickly to pass four coronavirus-related economic relief bills. As the aid provided in those bills continues to make its way to the state, we will be looking at what unmet needs remain going forward.”
Read the full bipartisan letter to Sens. McConnell and Schumer here:
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