ESC 2020 | Arnhem looks for alternative hosting possibilities
Since Duncan Laurence won the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, a myriad of cities had expressed interest in hosting the contest. After opening the official application, 9 cities applied to host, of which 4 have already dropped out: Amsterdam, Breda, Leeuwarden and The Hague. So that leaves us with 5 confirmed cities still in the running to be the host city of Eurovision 2020: Rotterdam, Arnhem, Utrecht, Maastricht and Den Bosch.
A while after the contest dutch broadcasters NOS, AVROTROS and NPO announced Eurovision 2020 would become a co-production of the three broadcasters.
However, Arnhem are now facing huge challenges in their process to hosting, because the GelreDome is the venue that Arnhem has applied to host Eurovision 2020 with, but the venue is home to a football club named Vitesse. The dates of the matches and of Eurovision would collide, so now the township of Arnhem is researching if there is any possibility to build temporary seats around the football pitch so Vitesse can play their matches while the preperations for the contest are going on inside the arena.
The pitch is always placed out of the arena during big events, such as concerts, so if there is a possibility to place temporary seating around the pitch outside of the arena, there would be a possibility for ESC 2020 to be held in Arnhem. The club Vitesse though, states that "We are quite cautious beforehand and it seems extremely difficult to realise such a project".
The province of Gelderland, which Arnhem is the capital of, has announced they would be prepared to help Arnhem in the bidding, but how exactly, has not been announced yet.
What do you think is the best city to host the 2020 edition of the contest?
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