This year’s Eurovision host city, Rotterdam, has gained profit out of hosting the event, although the budget for the contest was higher than expected, and because of COVID-19 the number of spectators was far less. The budget of this year’s show was 22 million euro, and of that amount 3.7 million euro was not spent, says the college of mayor and aldermen of Rotterdam in a letter to the local council.
Determining 2021’s budget
When the budget of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was determined the organization kept in mind two different scenarios. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic some parts of the script were adjusted or cancelled, and because of that less money was spent than initially planned. The total costs of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 were eventually 19 million euro, and not the budgeted 22 million.
Less spectators
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic less spectators were able to actually see the 2 semi-finals and the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 live in the Ahoy Rotterdam arena, but the contest was good for over 17,000 hotel bookings in the city of Rotterdam. These bookings earned Rotterdam’s entrepreneurs over 2.8 million euro. This amount is far less than during a regular Eurovision period in a host city.
Rotterdam is really happy
Naturally Rotterdam is really happy with how things turned out for this 2021 Eurovision host city. The organization and all parties involved are “happy and still very enthusiastic” about the whole Eurovision period during which this Dutch port city was the center of Europe’s attention. The city council of Rotterdam believes that the city did its utmost to put the city on the international map, and as far as they can see, they succeeded, although the COVID-19 pandemic made organizing the contest a huge challenge.
Taking on new international challenges
The city of Rotterdam, and its Ahoy arena, were already the setting for the MTV European Music Awards in 1997 and 2016. In 2007 the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Ahoy arena, and in 2021 the regular Eurovision Song Contest 2021 took place in Rotterdam Ahoy. The song contest of 2021 was by far the biggest challenge Ahoy ever took on, and now they know that they are ready for even more grand events like the Eurovision Song Contest in the future. The board of the Rotterdam Ahoy is excited about what the future holds for this arena.
Did you know?
Did you know that the most expensive Eurovision Song Contest ever held was the one in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku? The organization of the 2012 contest cost 160 million euro, divided over 60 million to organize the contest and 100 million euro to build a whole new state-of-the-art concert arena, better known as The Baku Crystal Hall.
The second most expensive Eurovision Song Contest was the one in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, in 2014. The price of the organization of the 2014’s contest was 45 million euro. The reason why the budget of Denmark’s organization peaked was because 2014’s organization decided on remodeling an old shipyard, B&W Hallerne, into a grand music arena to host the contest. The remodel cost far more than initially budgeted.