VenuesNow (01/28/21) Zoltak, James

Venues across the U.S. are stepping up to vaccinate millions of Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with stadiums, arenas, convention centers and smaller venues serving as testing sites and facilities for pandemic control since March. A coalition of live event industry leaders, including VenuesNow and Pollstar parent Oak View Group, recently submitted a letter to President Biden offering "the full support and resources of the live event industry" to help realize the administration's mass inoculation goals, "beginning immediately." "Event venues make ideal community vaccination sites: they are located in most urban, suburban and rural communities, often near transit lines and with easy access to parking," the missive stated. The coalition added that facility personnel are well-versed in crowd management. At Spokane Arena in Washington state, director of entertainment Matt Meyer said he had already been working with Community Health Center of Spokane on an initiative to administer 80 shots of Moderna's vaccine daily when state Gov. Jay Inslee announced that the arena would be a mass vaccination site. The stadium is geared to administer 500 shots a day, with an eventual goal of inoculating 5,000 people daily by the end of February, with the process expected to last through May.

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