The title says it all. It is known that three cities are still in the race to embrace the Eurovision Song Contest next May 2017 in Ukraine: Kyiv, Odessa and Dnipro. After all 6 candidates presented their bids on a TV debate live on the first channel of the Ukrainian National Public Broadcaster NTU, called ”City Battle”, these three were finally chosen thanks to the importance of their respective facilities regarding to a suitable venue, accommodation, transport and security.
Previously, the outcome was expected to be out on the 27th of July, but after EBU, NTU and the committee wanted to take more time to be carefully keeping and eye to all the specific details, a final decision is now expected to be revealed by the 1st of August.
During the 25th and 26th of July, representatives from the EBU, NTU and the Organizing Committee in charge of setting everything up for the 2017 edition of Europe’s favorite TV Show have been visiting and inspecting the cities and everything came up with a successful impression overall. Nevertheless, based on the inspection results, a number of additional recommendations were given to each potential host city of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 as well as the time to elaborate their final bids.
Heads of the city administration in each of the three locations were personally invited to join the committee during their visits and stay at the time they took a look at the respective potential venue where the show would be held and also areas for Eurovision Village, Euroclub and the Opening Ceremony, plus an accurate analysis of the city transport infrastructure (in particular, Dnipro and Odessa airports) and the security system. The hotel capacity, financial investment and other issues were also discussed.
The potential venues which each of the cities are currently offering are the following:
- Kyiv: Palace of Sports (Eurovision 2005 venue) and International Exhibition Centre.
- Odessa: Chornomorets Stadium.
- Dnipro: Dnipro EuroArena (Meteor Sports Complex).
Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the EBU, noted: ”Altogether we will focus on finding the best solution. But we really want to take the time it takes to come up with the right decision. I am happy to be in the middle of the process together with the National Television Company of Ukraine, representatives of the Organization Committee and the partners”.
“Everyone involved in the Contest in Europe and Ukraine, namely the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the National Television Company of Ukraine as the Host Broadcaster, the Organization Committee consisting of almost all members of the Government and led by the Prime Minister of the country, we all would not like to rush but get more details instead. The final decision is postponed to consider everything. We put it off together with the EBU inspectors who were in Ukraine for two days, saw all the cities and locations, were satisfied and understood the delay as they would like to get the details as well,” says the NTU General Director, Zurab Alasaniia.
Which of the three cities remaining in the race would you like to host the contest next year in Ukraine? We want your opinion! Stay tuned!