And then there were three. Or so goes a report published in Israel’s Walla!, which claims Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Eilat are the only cities still in the race to host Eurovision 2019.
According to the newspaper, the northern city of Haifa, which had previously expressed an interest in hosting the event, did not submit its application by the July 18 deadline.
Walla! claims that KAN subsequently sent officials in Haifa a letter that reads as follows:
“On July 8, we held a meeting in the mayor’s office regarding the possibility of hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in the city of Haifa. Both before and after the meeting, letters were sent to you from the corporation detailing the data required for the presentation so that the corporation and the European Broadcasting Union could consider hosting the competition in Haifa, including clear timetables for sending the data. The last date of delivery was July 18.”
“Since we have not received any response from you (orally or in writing), we assume that you are not interested in continuing to participate in the process. We thank you for your interest and wish you great success.”
Yona Yahav, the mayor of Haifa, made a case for his city in interviews over the summer. He cleverly distanced his city from ongoing conflicts in Jerusalem by describing it as a place where diverse communities and religious groups mingle in tranquility.
Speaking to Walla! he said: “There is no doubt that Haifa — the City of Peace — is best suited for hosting the Eurovision Song Contest, which will bring great honour to the city and contribute to the development of the economy and tourism. The Sammy Ofer stadium was built according to the highest standards in the world, using the highest technologies and is now in line with the world’s leading stadiums.”
Following the Walla! report on his city’s absent bid, he seemed confused.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he told the paper. “We did not receive any letter from the corporation. Today is a holiday in the municipality. Call me tomorrow, I’ll find out.”
He added that Haifa has not withdrawn from the race.
The ongoing confusion will only add to the belief that Tel Aviv is the front-runner to host Eurovision 2019. That feeling has been growing ever since KAN released the criteria for potential host cities.The Red Sea resort of Eilat has hotel rooms but lacks a proper venue.
Jerusalem has the venue and the hotel rooms, but may not be able to meet scheduling demands owing to Orthodox objection to Sabbath desecration.
And Haifa has its own problem. The official bidding criteria says organisers’ preference is for cities with venues that already have a roof. Sammy Offer Stadium does not.
You can read more about the hosting criteria below.
they still take a lot of time to decide, whether the city or the date … It’s still a lack of professionalism not to have thought about it sooner. Usually this information arrives very quickly, regardless of the host country. Meanwhile most other countries have already started preparing their selections, the titles and the candidates will be revealed from next autumn, everything will go very quickly and if they do not move nothing will be ready to welcome them. Hoping that they do not tinker with an emergency solution by borrowing the awful red lights of Lisbon!
If it was so late the EBU would make it sooner. The EBU are the ones who actually make this desicion. The host only provides the options. So calm down honey, it’s not like you’re investing your money in this production.
the big 5 takes out the wallet every year, and the money does not blow on the trees. Coincidentally, it’s part of the royalty I pay every year to the French public service. And even if my contribution is only a drop in the budget, I prefer to see my cents well used.
* “money doesn’t GROW on trees”
* “drop in the BUCKET”
What is the purpose of taking me back to English expressions? to feel intellectually superior? To humiliate me because my only crime is to have an opinion different from yours? I am French so yes I make mistakes in English, just as there are people who make mistakes in French because it ‘s not their mother tongue. But I don’t make fun of them, I encourage them to progress. If the only way you think you will impose is to crush people who do not agree with you, then you are not superior in me, you just prove your immaturity.
No mockery, just information. I figure that if your English is advanced enough to use those expressions, you’d also be interested in using them correctly.
I agree with you that with the amount of money involved in Eurovision, the host broadcaster should be better organised.
It’s not like announcing the host details has anything to do with good use of the budget, the 2015 details were revealed on August 2014 and it was a great show, while the 2013 details were revealed early July and it was one of the most poorly produced contest in recent years IMHO. So I don’t see your point here. Being Israeli, My taxes are paying for a lot of next year’s show – more than any of the big 5 – and I’m not worried about this trifle, At least not at this point. Anyway, having to choose between… Read more »
It’s gonna be quite challenging hosting it in Haifa but no mayor is going to say no to an opportunity of hosting a global event like Eurovision.
Unrelated to Haifa, Pavilion 2 would be suitable if the design of stage, the placement of green room, and the amount of electricity were measured carefully. My wish is to have a stage with a small floor size, but high utility like 2016 (with hopes that performers would really utilize it next year).
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I live in Tel-Aviv and it’s saddens me to admit that even though Tel-Aviv is the perfect choice to host Eurovision, it lacks the proper venue for such an event as they are all too small with a max audience capacity of about 8000-9000, which is a joke!!
And that is why Sami Ofer stadium with a capacity of 35,000 is absolutely the BEST option to host Eurovision!!
I do hope this is a misunderstanding and that Haifa will eventually get elected to host the event
Relax, it was not going to be in any stadium at any point. This is very expencive and the EBU wouldn’t choose this option aniway due to high risk of not finishing the roof in time etc. Haifa BTW has already oficially admitted that they chose not to place the bid, read walla
Haifa is selling tickets for the next season of Maccabi Haifa in Sammy Offer stadium. It is not mentioned anywhere that the games might switch venue in case of Eurovision. So that’s the sign they didn’t place any bid
I don’t know why the confusion and chaos. Obviously it’s Tel Aviv, why wouldn’t it be? The government just wanted to make a political statement by declaring Jerusalem as the host city but if KAN has common sense or any sense at all, they’ll choose Tel Aviv.
Things are not as black and white as you think. Eurovision has been hosted twice already in Jerusalem, and it has the right conditions to host.
Yeah, I don’t like Jerusalem as a hosting city as well, but non-Israelis must understand it IS the most logical choice logistically.
Even if I, personally, think our government is a bit silly most of the times, If Jerusalem IS going to chosen – I wouldn’t be surprised. logistically, it’s the most suitable.
But you do have a suitable venue in Tel Aviv, don’t you? Tel Aviv Convention Center Pavillion 2 can seat 10.000 people and the international airport is much closer plus the number of accomodations are higher as well. Tel Aviv sounds pretty convincing to me.
Jerusalem 2019 ?
Can’t they just cancel the whole process and choose Tel Aviv?!
I think its fairly obvious that it will be Tel aviv 2019 in the pavillion 2. At first i thought it was going to be another kyiv 2017 disaster in terms of the venue as their isnt any proper photos of the venue, but when i look at this, it looks huge and it looks like it can seem way bigger than kyiv 2017. Just take a look at this: http://www.fairs.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/pavilion-2_shivuk_new.pdf
It is a 6500 sq m venue, Kiyiv was about 14000 sq m. (But i think they used around 10 sq m for ESC) BUT if you place the green room outside, it should be able to contain 8-9k spectators.
no your wrong.
What am I wrong about?…
By the way, the ”photos” you are looking at in this pdf are renders, not actual photos of the venue. Stop being silly and check your facts.
did you look at the link? They are the facts in black white and if you saw the pictures of inside the venue itself it looks way bigger than kyiv 17.
Dude, I know all the facts, it doesn’t matter how it looks on renders. Bother to look on the numbers. Pavilion no 2 has a maximum capacity of 10k in ring arrangment, meaning when the tribunes are surrounding the stage from all directions, its irrelevant to eurovision. From square meter perspective the 2 intersecting pavilions in Kiev that were used together as a venue, have 14k sq meters. Pavilion no. 2 has 6.5k sq meters. You can look at whatever pictures you like, the venue in Kiev was way bigger.
No you got the wrong hall. The Pavillion 2 has 50k SQUARE METERS, not 6.5k where are you getting that figure from? 6.5k is tiny no eurovision wud ever be held their
Lol, the 50k is the building including all its floors and parts. Irrelevant number. Denemark had 11k in the arena and it wasn’t small in any standard. They built ships in there. Freaking ships! The conversation about what ”looks” or ”feels” big is irrelevant as well as clearly it is up to everyone. That’s why i prefer to talk about facts and numbers instead of your ”feelings”.
Actually No that 50k is actually the whole convention center. My point is that Denmark 2014 was only 10k in a small venue but it looked Huge it looked bigger than austria which was a way bigger venue. However Kyiv 2017 looked bad imo, i trust Israel and the ebu to make this 10k venue turn out like 2014 rather than 2017.
Haifa can’t host the contest anyway just read the 2019 host city criteria.