Rotterdam and Maastricht will compete in the coming weeks to become the host city for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. Contest organiser NPO has just announced that these two cities are the only ones left in the race. The other three municipalities who submitted official bids on July 10 — Arnhem, Utrecht and Den Bosch — have officially fallen out of the race.
Rotterdam vs Maastricht
It is not entirely surprising that Rotterdam and Maastricht are left in a two-way fight to host. The rumours and speculation regarding their status as the frontrunners have been around for some time. That status was cemented by the withdrawal of capital city Amsterdam from the race.
Rotterdam is prepared to invest a lot of money into the contest. It has the right facilities, infrastructure and arena — the Ahoy Rotterdam. The venue meets all the requirements set by the EBU and also has ample experience with the organisation of large music shows. Excitement and expectation is building in Rotterdam, with the contest even discussed in city council. That discussion involved the local government voting down the “Madonna ban“, allowing the Queen of Pop to perform at the contest, even though she has already shut that idea down.
The Limburg capital, Maastricht, also has a strong bid. They have a sufficient budget and the city meets all of the strict conditions. It is even one step ahead for the EBU because of its pronounced European character. It is not only close to Germany and Belgium but as a result of the Maastricht Treaty (1993), it also boasts an important piece of European history. As a result of this history, rumours suggest that Maastricht is the EBU’s preferred host city.
The dropouts
The NPO will not publicly discuss why Arnhem, Utrecht and Den Bosch are not hosting the contest next year. It is up to the city councils themselves whether they want to disclose the substantive reasons for their rejection. There were already doubts earlier about the budget of Den Bosch and Utrecht — the cities need around 15 million euros. Utrecht also had a problem with the height of the Jaarbeurs arena.
This decision was made quite quickly. Last Wednesday, all five cities presented their bid books in the NPO building in Hilversum. Now that the “winners” are known, working visits will be made this week to the final two cities and their arenas. In the coming weeks, more working visits will follow — the executive producers of the Eurovision Song Contest want to be able to make an accurate assessment of whether the cities can deliver what the EBU demands.
The NPO hopes to announce the host city in mid-August, as well as the confirmation of the dates of the contest. That city will therefore see its name emblazoned across the new logo of the Eurovision Song Contest, with the logo announced in due course. That will be followed by ticket sales, a semi-final allocation draw and many other events in the lead up to Eurovision in May 2020.
Which city would you like to see host Eurovision 2020? Are you #TeamRotterdam or #TeamMaastricht? Let us know in the comments below.
I would love to show you Rotterdam cause clearly you havent visited well when you came over. If you stay in the main shopping street it might be dull, but this is not your avarage small Dutch city, you need to move around to discover. It is actually a real beauty not only because its modern architecture but there are some beatiful historic buildings and areas as well, great nightlife and restaurants as well. Its rather rude to say that those articals are just paid advertising , they wouldnt spend there money on it if it wasnt to benefit themself… Read more »
Aachen
You guys had probably get sick of me pushing Ahoy at literally all the time. So I’ll try to put my ‘analysis’ on MECC. Maastricht MECC’s eligible option for hosting the stage is the South Hall with an area of 10.000 m2 and the height of 12,5 m. The North Hall can be used for the green room since its height in only 10 m, and the West Hall for the dressing rooms inf necessary. Considering that in the main hall we will have a big stage and logistics, a third of the centre would have been consumed on this… Read more »
Plus, the news about MECC Maastricht is from the Limburg news so you can take it with a grind of pepper.
I mean if Maastricht becomes the host city, JESC will once again have a larger scale of the Arena in Gliwice 2019 , and i’m freaking tired of it…
During today’s meeting in Maastricht Bakker stated:
In terms of height, width and depth, the hall in the MECC is reminiscent of the venues in Kiev and Tel Aviv. This makes it challenging!
https://ibb.co/yfzG00v
We are looking at a 12-13m set here. Look how small the people on stage look comparing to that. The thing is Tel Aviv had all the triangle ceiling lowered to “hide” the prism legs and other light fixtures when they are up. So they didn’t really use all the height of the venue. In MECC they won’t have any space left to hide anything if the’d like to.
can they stop the clownery and announce rotterdam already
Maastricht as city, hands down. Rotterdam is aweful. But MECC is not a good venue, RAI is waaaay better. Difficult.
Aweful ? You mean Awesome 🙂
RAI is in Amsterdam though 😉
According to the Rotterdam Ahoy events page, Frank van Etten is performing there on Saturday 9th May 2020. Eurovision happens that month and organisers must have the stage ready in time for the contest a month before. This could be an indicator it could be in Maastricht.
https://www.ahoy.nl/en/events
This has already been arranged. Frank is happy to move his concert to another day: https://www.nu.nl/muziek/5962397/volkszanger-frank-van-etten-zou-show-in-ahoy-verplaatsen-voor-songfestival.html
I mean they wouldn’t supply if this concert stopped them from candidate
LOL, there are always events planned in the future hosting venue. Those venues don’t just stand there empty waiting for the day that the country wins Eurovision. The booked events can be rescheduled/moved to another venues.
Thnx for boycotting me, once again. 🙁 Is that the spirit of Europe? Btw, I love Loin Dici; she seem to cares.
I’m with Deban concerning Amsterdam; they should’ve fought harder for ESC. However, as these are the final two cities, I’d go with Rotterdam, so I choose William’s side on that one. Don’t forget, Deban: Delft (you <3 that city) and The Hague are just a few minutes per train or metro away from Rotterdam. So people can experience old and new at the same time. Also: it’s close to Amsterdam Central Station/Amsterdam Airport Schiphol., with direct links to Rotterdam. For the Dutch a journey of little less than 30 minutes is far away, but for people from abroad it’s nothing.… Read more »
This is what is possible in Ahoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYaCUBWThl4
What does MECC have to offer? Its most famous music production is well, non existent. Yes, each year there is a world famous art exposition, but that’s not in the same league.
KENSINGTON SHOULD BE NEXT! Even if they don’t win, they’ll definitely keep the Dutch in the top 5 in that arena!
In the early nineties wordclass acts of that time played in mecc including Toto, miami sound machine, witney Houston and prince so I don’t think that is nothing
I have very difficult question for you: Rotterdam is more suitable than Maastricht? Of course!
Maastricht
#TeamMaastricht #StrongEurope #TolerantEurope #LongLiveEurope
uh If you want pro- or a stronger-Europe then Maastricht (or Limburg in general) would be the last place lol. It’s home to Geert Wilders (extreme right politician who grew up in Venlo, Limburg), and the largest percentage of the population who support PVV, and oppose everything which has to do with EU/Europe and other nationalities and traditions/religions.
Maybe it would count in 1992, but definitely not in 2019, even though the delegation tries to convince everyone that it is still nowadays the most European city of all cities in NED…
uh If you want a pro or stronger Europe Maastricht or Limburg in general would be the last place lol. The province is home to Geert Wilders who grew up there. And the largest percentage of the population which voted for his
Yes go to Rotterdam!
Maastricht has too much European history attached to allow to be misused for this political singing farce. We don’t want this disgusting event in our city
Hope the best will win, we don’t know all criterias, maybe EBU wants to promote cities like Maastricht.
Rotterdam all the way Maastricht is just too small
– Rotterdam
– great venue, and large square around
– great transport Zestienhoven AirPort , train, Subway to the venue, bus.
– 40 minutes to Amsterdam , 24 minutes from Schiphol by intercity train.
– near other great city’s to visit den haag, delft, Amsterdam and Utrecht
– modern city lot of space
– MTV waards, north sea jazz, enz
– Summer carnaval, marathon, havendagen so they no how to get the people safe
– also the old town Delfshaven, Rotterdam noord , and hipster Katendrecht
– nightlife Maassilo we want to go out big
So they seem to remember Millstreet fondly, since they want to repeat it.
Millstreet has around 1.500 inhabitants, whereas Maastricht has approximately 120.000 inhabitants, besides all the historical background. So that’s a silly comparison.
Millstreet was purely chosen because the Irish didn’t want yet another contest in Dublin after two consecutive ESCs there- understandable, but Galway and Cork say hello!
Maastricht is lovely. That being said, it doesn’t deserve to be in final two. This is already super shady.
Say what you will about Maastricht or its venue, but they have made a surprisingly strong case for themselves, and with Amsterdam out of the picture, they’re the only ones who could give Rotterdam a run for their money. Rotterdam is a pretty clear winner to me, at least, but if they had to debate among the other options from the bidding, Maastricht was the only one to come close.
Maastricht exaggerated the net figures, they will lose because of that, or they will win just because EBU wants to involve three countries (one of them Big 5).
Long live the friendship Germany + Belgium + The Netherlands.
I’ve never been to Maastricht, I’m sure it’s lovely, but I’m surprised it has gotten this far, I thought their hall isn’t big enough? I can’t find any pictures.
I’m also surprised Arnhem is out, their biggest obsticle was dealing with the football team but I thought they agreed on something- why are they out?
Money. Last week the word was about ~10 million Euro, yesterday the local politicians talked about 5 to 7 million Euro. Rotterdam is on 15, Maastricht up to ~25.
Is it misinformation, when local politicians see the lack of money as the main reason why Arnhem is not selected?
I do love the passion of the one that favors Maastricht but we do love some great air-view angles in May.
Fun fact: according to Ola Melzig there were 11,500 spectators in the audience in Lisbon 2018.
In Tel Aviv there were 7250 plus 1500 in the green room. Not a huge difference as people thought. People always look at the total capacity of those arenas but don’t understand that when the stage “eats” a quarter of the tribunes+green room+commentator booths+camera equipment, it reduces the capacity of those arenas very drastically.
Source: https://www.livedesignonline.com/concerts/eurovision-numbers
No one of the the ramaining cities provide a small hall. 10k sqm. is not small. It’s about the size of Copenhagen venue. Just the roof is low, which is not an advantage at all. I don’t see how Rotterdam can loose this bid.
Yes, so pick the “12.000” capacity of one of the halls from MECC, and compare with the 16.000 of the Ahoy. PS: In Ahoy, you don’t need to count the space of the commentators booth, because they already have. It is an arena after all.
Fernando sweety, no arena has 46 permanent commentator booths. Even the 20k Altice arena had to put booths on top of the seats. And if there are 46 booths, please show me your source.
Yes you are correct, Lisbon took only 11.500 spectators because of the huge space that the stage and everything involved requires, because in fact, Meo Arena in Lisbon has a capacity of 20.000 people on normal concerts.
Dude, let’s be accurate. They have 2 halls that are 10000 m2 in size each, comparing to 6500 m2 hall in Tel Aviv. The problem indeed is their roof. But not their size.
The roof does affect the size, counting that a grandstand is needed for the shows and how the camera angles would look lime. Plus, 12.5m is just ome of the three big halls, the other one is only 10m so it doesn’t help making it any better.
Don’t know how anyone would prefer the small town of Maastricht to host an event of this caliber.
Im with Duncan on this one | Rotterdam 2020
I just hope it’s NPO’s polite way of saying “Maastricht, we see you’d like to host and we really appreciate your passion for the contest, but we’ve gotta treat our job seriously, so we’ll just give it to Rotterdam, no offence”. Like imagine Kate Miller-Heidke performing in Maastricht – she’d be at a constant risk of hitting the ceiling with her head 🙂
According to their website, MECC halls has a net height of 12.5 meters. That won’t do. I don’t know what are the EBU requirements, and god knows they change every year, but 12.5m is very low for a production like that. The EBU ruled out a better arena for the Eurovision 2019, but that was because of Jerusalem stuff. I don’t see any reason for them to do this in the Netherlads. It will go to Rotterdamm. Unless someone went crazy in there.
According to their website they are renovating and the director of the MECC said the halls are 17,88 meters heigh. Sietse Bakker explained the reason behind this aspect. Aircirculation. For a broadcast 10 meters would also do the trick.
10 meters absolutely would not do the trick. The EBU has minimum height requirements for venues. And that 17.88 meters is the gross height. The net height is only 12.5 meters.
The renovation will be done in approximately February 2020, so we’ll see.
I doubt that any renovation will raise the roof height. Because that means demolishing the old roof, making all the walls taller than they are, you can’t do such work in couple of months.
MECC can host the green room in 2020 with that space, sorry
Choosing Maastricht over Arnhem feels very corrupt. Maastricht is trying to bribe the people who choose the hosting city. Rotterdam has more hotel rooms in the area. Their venue is a lot higher. Maastricht’s venue is meters too low. Maastricht doesn’t even meet all the requirements!
Choose Rotterdam!
I hope it is going to be Rotterdam for several reasons: 1. It is a pretty modern city and is SO different from other cities in Netherlands or maybe even Europe 2. The city is pretty big(bigger than Amsterdam when you look at the size of it which means that there will be enough hotel rooms available and it won’t be too overcrowded with tourists like other cities( ahum Amsterdam) 3. And the most important one: It has a SUITABLE venue with several halls where, for example, the press conference can be held and the press hall( or something) where… Read more »
.
MECC Maastricht can fit 12.800 people during the shows (bigger than Tel Aviv) and the ceiling is just 12 centimeters too low which is confirmed not to be a problem. And yes, the budget of Maastricht is much bigger than Rotterdam….I will be happy with both cities though but Maastricht has a serious chance.
No the ceiling is not 12 centimeters too low. The ceiling 5,5 meters too low. It is the net height that matters.
The MECC-Director has asked the dutch ESC-Team if the height would be a problem and the answer was ‘please, send us your bidbook’. So they did and now they are still a candidate-city. I would not complain about that. If the ceiling is really too low, Maastricht would have been out. The Maastricht Budget is up to 25 Mio. Not in real money, but that is the value of the offer. MECC provides the Hall for free, the hotels in Maastricht will be paid the normal prices, the touringcar operators will provide their services with a deduction and this list… Read more »
Ira Losco wants to know: “Is it fiction or fact?”, this race? I’m assuming they just want to stage this duel to gain publicity during a time where the contest is not in the news. Prove me wrong and choose Maastricht, that would be a real surprise. The EBU probably doesn’t want Maastricht, but we want people to believe they do. Personally, I always want whoever has the best arena, regardless of which country wins.
Wait, so you prefer Maastricht over Rotterdam, but you want the best arena? Do you know the capacity of the arena’s of both cities?
No, I prefer nothing here. I just said generally, I would always choose whoever has the best arena. Seems to be Rotterdam. I just thought it would be fun if Maastricht was actually announced since I suspect it might just be a staged duel and it would be very surprising if Maastricht actually won.
It’s very sad hearing Arnhem isn’t in the race anymore. I hoped they would host the contest, because I have the feeling the eyes are always focussed on the West of the Netherlands. Arnhem would be the example tot show that also a bit smaller cities outsite the West could host the contest. I am however happy to read Maastricht is still in the race. I’m rooting for them!
Imagine Maastricht being announced as the host city…
Imaaginee a world like that
I don’t get why I get downvoted haha. I was just referring to Ariana’s song.
That was from 26 years ago when the number of participants are a half of today and the production weren’t as complex as of now.
THE PEOPLE WANT ROTTERDAM PLEASE DON’T BE STUPID.
‘The people’ don’t want Rotterdam. My son performed in Rotterdam last month and came home with a wish ‘never again. Awful people, that do not know how to behave themselves, too many young men carrying knives – clearly visible – and not even a gay nightlife worth mentioning.’
Wait you have a son but you also want a gay nightlife… Don’t really see how that works. And I’m pretty sure that if Eurovision travels to Rotterdam the ‘gay nightlife’ will explode. Also Amsterdam is like 20 minutes by train so if you want to experience their ‘gay nightlife’ you can. Also also, how big is the gay scene in Maastricht, I don’t think it’s as big as Rotterdam XD.
Amsterdam is >40 minutes away by train though 😀
And, it’s your son. Might your son had a bad experience in Rotterdamn, it is not equal to general, collective experiences.
* laugh * I quoted my son. Rotterdam misses out on hospitality, where Maastricht welcomes everyone. Yes, I know, it will bring me another set of downvotes, but that is how foreigners experience Rotterdam.
And I haven’t seen any real arguments, taking the position of dutch broadcasters into account. The dutch government is not willing to provide extra money, so NPO needs to go for the city that will help them to reduce the costs of the show.
People in Rotterdam don’t miss out on hospitality, they are straigt forward and people from Limburg can’t handle that. And (not that it is very important for hosting ESC) Rotterdam has far more gaybars than Maastricht. And I am sure that during ESC there will be plenty esc parties (gay/straight) all week. I’ve been living in Rotterdam all my life and I’ve never seen people carrying knives.
Lol, Maastricht and welcoming everyone? The whole province of Limburg has a lot of racists in it who don’t welcome people of color.
Please Malmo has hosted Eurovision without any problem. And it’s same macho culture there, i mean after all Moscow, Kyiv and Belgrade has hosted it without causing anyone’s life.
I am part of “the people” and I want Maastricht.
Marko: Lol Rotterdam voted for PvdA and Groenlinks, two parties that are far more accepting than the FvD and PVV that Limburg voted for. And besides, this is about the most suitable city and arena, not the ‘most hospital city’.
A pity for Maastricht their hall has a net height of only 12,5 meters.
I agree, I cannot believe we might be going to an even lower venue than in Tel Aviv! Especially when the Netherlands have such a great possible venue with Ahoy Rotterdam!
Why is this so funny to me XD
I can’t believe nobody from the eurovision press has questioned Maastricht’s lies till now.
Is that MECC? The ceiling is almost as low as that of Hangar 11! 🙁
It’s gotta be Ahoy! The ceiling is more than high enough to get camera angles that will likely be impossible to get inside MECC.
Now, if it were for JUNIOR Eurovision…
OMG the light equipment will almost hit the floor hahah
It looks smaller than the green room of Eurovision 2013……
Honestly The Offcials are going nuts! Imagine Esc 2011 stage in this room
I think the height of mecc is 17.5 meters, not 12.5