Seventeen Italian cities stand before RAI and the EBU. However, according to local media reports, only three are in with a chance of hosting Eurovision 2022 — Milan, Turin and Bologna. That’s because none of the other candidate locations currently boast a suitable venue which meets all the requirements for hosting the song contest.
Reports say only Milan, Turin and Bologna meet all the requirements for Eurovision 2022
The news that many suspected came about after TriestePrima made some enquiries about the feasibility of Trieste’s own bid. The website interviewed a number of industry experts in the region, who determined that no venue in the city currently meets two essential parameters — namely the capability to host an audience of 8,000 to 10,000 people and a ceiling height of about 18 metres with capacity to support loads on the roof. Trieste’s main indoor arena, the PalaTrieste can hold a seated audience of about 7,000. Meanwhile, the Stadio Nereo Rocco footdoor arena holds up to 24,500 seated fans but lacks a roof.
These same experts determine that “in reality” only Milan, Turin and Bologna boast structures which meet all the requirements. While successful bids from other cities may seem unlikely, they cannot be ruled out completely. Eurovision has been held in a number of unorthodox locations over the years. Eurovision 2014 took place inside a converted industrial hall on an island in Copenhagen. In 1993, the song contest came from an equestrian arena in rural Ireland.
Eurovision 2022 bidding process
A total of 17 Italian cities have submitted initial declarations of interest to RAI. They are:
- Acireale (Catania)
- Alessandria
- Bertinoro di Romagna (Forlì – Cesena)
- Bologna
- Genoa
- Florence
- Jesolo (Venice)
- Matera
- Milan
- Palazzolo Acreide (Syracuse)
- Pesaro
- Rimini
- Rome
- Sanremo (Imperia)
- Turin
- Trieste
- Viterbo
The next stage will see all the candidates complete a more detailed document with the necessary requirements for hosting Eurovision. These bid books must be submitted to RAI by Wednesday 4 August. The final decision will be made by RAI in conjunction with the EBU by the end of August.
Do you think any of the other 14 cities could surprise us? Let us know in the comments.
I really wish to see Eurovision 2022 in Turin. The city is perfect for it and has the best arena in Italy.
ESC doesn’t deserve anything less than Turin, which would be the best choice for them.
I really hope this is Turin’s chance!!!
It’s gonna be Assago in Milano for sure. The MTV awards were already hosted there few years ago.
Assago’s Forum is literally the worst possible venue out of the three…It’s not even Milan’s most suitable venue actually, Palazzo delle Scintille is.
Anyway, it’s a match between Turin and Bologna. Milan doesn’t have many chances this time around.
Never underestimate Milan hahaha!!
Contest from 1993 is not comparable with these days. Millstreet couldn’t host it in 2022….
And I think that even before that year, Millstreet was a crazy idea
Hopefully NOT Milan… never been to the other two but have spent a week in Milan and it’s just ok. Was quite polluted and overcrowded and that was in early Autumn…
Plus loads of scammers, one of them sent a bird to fly at me and my friend and it landed on his shoulder and caused skin marks and obvs they expected us to ‘pay’ for the experience and get a photo taken… with our own camera…
Thankfully I got loud and angry and they cleared off and took their feckin bird with then…
Interesting story!
*pretends to be shocked*
Ok, jokes aside I think Turin will be the host at this point, though Milan and Bologna would be nice hosts too
Three excellent choices. I’m lucky to have been to all of those three places before. Should be fun.
we been knew
Doesn’t Rome have a suitable venue? That seems weird, since they were bidding for the Olympics so there should be “something” there…
I also am very dubious, like how can Rome not meet the requirements (which are literally just saying that you need to be able to absorb a high volume of visitors) when it’s one of the most visited cities in the world.
PalaLottomatica in Rome holds around 11000 spectators but it’s rounded, amphitheater-like shape made it unfeasible for setting a Eurovision stage there. The only problem Rome has is only the arena, as Rome fulfilled all of the other requirements.
Globen is the same shape, although maybe bigger. I get what you mean, if the arena us rounded building a stage might take up more spectator space, but I see that there’s plenty of experience with concerts there.
if you look at Globen inside, it is still U-shaped like most indoor arenas. only from the outside it is circular or rounded.
OK, Globen is not completely circular inside. But if you look at thia stage plan for 2016, I don’t believe PalaLottomatica is really impossible as a venue. https://www.livedesignonline.com/concerts/lighting-plot-and-gear-list-for-eurovision-2016
Somehow I get the feeling that Rome might be the same story as Amsterdam for 2020: both cities are already overrun by tourist and have plenty of events to put them in the spotlights, and are more than willing to let more eager cities play host to Eurovision.
Pala Lottomatica is smaller and doeesn’t have all the space as the Globen Arena. Additionally it doesn’t have space outside to host the temporary press center, etc.
Not a surprise really…
There is no way Eurovision will be held in Bologna if they have the Pala Alpitour in Torino as another possible choice.
Now that the near Rome is out, I’m routine for the nearest city to my house: Bologna
I’d agree with this statement, there really only is 3 possible realistic host cities out of the 17 bids.
It will be Turin most likely, with Milan and Bologna also having strong chances.
Hope it’s better than last time Italy held it, with that awful presenter
That awful presenter was the guy who was responsible for Italy’s win but he was indeed abominable
I never thought that the 1991 presenters were bad. For once they were behaving like normal human beings, instead of just blasting rehearsed lines and overprepared jokes like robots as your typical ESC presenters do.
are we really going to compare an ESC in 1991 with one in 2021? c’mon now. As if the presenter was the only ingredient of the whole show. And, I must add, that the presenter were both Italian past winners of ESC, they were singers, not presenters. they tried something new and maybe it didn’t work.. so what? moving on now because this ” I hope it is better than 1991″ is getting old…
Cheering for Bologna!
I’ll never say it enough times: IT WILL BE TURIN. Mark my words
I wonder what would happen if a country won Eurovision that DIDN’T have anything that fit the venue requirements. Would their hosting rights be voided?
That would be very unfair, I imagine the EBU would just relax their rules a bit.
We can’t have Eurovision in a tiny, crappy arena. It would hurt the contest’s reputation. If you won and didn’t have a suitable arena, then that country should be able to pick a suitable country to host, but it’ll still be “their”eurovision. Just like if Australia won and Germany hosted. It would still be Australia’s contest.
If Malta won, for example, the EBU would downsize Eurovision so it wouldn’t strain the host city. The audience capacity requirement would definitely be scrapped and the ceiling height requirement lowered.
I hope a smaller nation such as Malta, Cyprus or Montenegro win so we could see how the EBU would accommodate the contest to the host city.
Malta would probably host Eurovision in the Marsa Shipbuilding where they hosted Junior Eurovision 2014. Cyprus would host it the venue of Junior Eurovision 2008.
Montenegro has the Mora?a Sports Center in Podgorica. If we keep in mind that all of these venues have a size compared to the Tel Aviv EXPO that hosted in 2019 they are all fine.
None of the countries you mentioned meet the hotel room availability.
But… Cyprus and Malta have tons of hotels
Actually Malta would most likely host the contest at the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre in Attard, it has a capacity of ~10,000
For Eurovisikn 2012 Azerbaijan built a brand new hall to host the Eurovision. In other case EBU would ask another country to host the Eurovision. I’m not 100% sure if that would be country who got 2 place or just a random one
In the past it’s generally been the UK that’s hosted when the winner doesn’t want to or can’t host the contest. This hasn’t happened for a while though. Generally if a country appears to be trying to win they will have a plan
They would probably stick one of the Big Five countries with the burden, probably the same if a country declines to host citing any other reason, such as costs. Though it is my believe that the fair thing to do is to offer the chance to host to the country in second place if the winner can’t host.
it has happened a few times in the past that the winning country didn’t host the following year’s contest: -1972: 1971 contest was won by Monaco, but Monaco didn’t manage to provide a suitable venue. Monaco through Tele Monte Carlo decided to choose the UK to host instead. . -1980: hosted in the Hague, Netherlands after Israel, the 1979 winning country, declined. Israel also had hosted the 1979 contest. . my opinion is that, if the winning country doesn’t want to host because of venue requirements, it will go many ways: -runner-up hosting it instead -hosted in one of the… Read more »
Eurovision 2003 in Riga, Latvia was held in Skonto Hall which only held around 6500 spectators. I guess EBU would ease everything out so that the winning country gets to host the contest next year, unless if the broadcaster is stating their unwillingness from the start.
so basically no news, we already knew that. Sad that Rome does not have a big modern arena, how is that possible for the capital city… i mean i know it’s an old town but still..
Turin will get it 100%
In 1993, the song contest came from an equestrian arena in rural Ireland.—>
well it’s unfortunate to compare the modern contest with the 1993 Eurovision which was held in small venues/theatres/studios for a small number of people. Instead, you can mention the exhibition center in tel aviv which was completely transformed for Eurovision, same for Kyiv 2017.
Rome should surely think what Copenhagen has already thought. Copenhagen once did not have a suitable indoor arena with capacity of 12,000 to 18,000. Brondbyhall and Ballerup Super Arena are too small, and Parken the 2001 Eurovision venue is too large. even Eurovision 2014 was held in an ex industrial complex. so a decision was then made to build a new arena, and it now becomes Royal Arena. . Rome’s biggest indoor arena so far is PalaLottomatica. it has capacity of 11,200, but its shape (circular, not U-shaped like a more common indoor arena) and its roof (not strong enough… Read more »
The 3rd time in a row Netta got the host city wrong! Can’t imagine she’s a fortune teller in her 2nd job
What did she guess??
Rome. What else?