The Eurovision fever has hit the Netherlands as the nation is in full steam preparing for next year’s competition. Yesterday the organizing committee consisting of the three Dutch public broadcasters NOS, AVROTROS and NPO sent out the host city criteria bid book to the applicant cities. Now the potential host cities have four weeks to send in their proposals to the organizing body. Maastricht is one of the potential cities who is vying to host the contest next year, the city has stated that it meets all the requirements to host the event according to the latest local media reports.

Maastricht is vying to hold the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest at the MECC Maastricht. The City of Maastricht, the region of Limburg and MECC Maastricht are all working round the clock preparing their bid. Maastricht seems to be one of the front runners in the 2020 Host City race along with Rotterdam and Amsterdam with a very strong bid!

Mr.Rob van de Wiel (MECC ‘s Director) has received the criteria for hosting the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest according to the local Dutch press. He says:

There is no criteria that Maastricht cannot meet!

The requirements for hosting the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest arrived in Maastricht at 12:00 CET on Wednesday 12 June.

Criteria

Cities are assessed on, among other things, the available location, capacity and technical facilities, accommodation, infrastructure and accessibility. The director of the MECC cannot say more about this:

The NPO requests confidentiality.

The Proposal

All proposals must be received by 10 July 2o019 at the latest. According to Van de Wiel, the bid book is already well underway:

With that we already have a head start. The work has already been done in part. We still need to tighten it up.

He also wants to supplement it with contributions from among others: the municipality, the province and Maastricht Marketing.

A sauce is poured over it so that it becomes a bidbook of the area.

On the basis of such a bid book, candidates can show how they meet the requirements set.

Further queries

To be as good as possible, the MECC team will first thoroughly read the bid book and study the requirements.  Hereafter if they have any further queries they will address them to NPO and AVROTROS.

Maastricht’s big rival

Van de Wiel regards Rotterdam as the biggest competitor:

The city is developing rapidly, has good locations and infrastructure. They have good papers. I am not impressed by the rest.

Home improvement

Earlier, Van der Wiel indicated that the MECC has everything to facilitate production. Even though the convention center is renovating until 2021, this should not stand in the way of the organization of the competition:

It is no problem for the Eurovision Song Contest, in fact we are renovating anyway with the house open.  What I mean to say is that the exploitation will continue. The emphasis of the renovation will also be on the convention center, and we don’t expect that to be necessary. We will be using the hall complex, which remains outside the construction and renovation site.

Hotel rooms

Maastricht will not have a shortage of hotel rooms either, as the city has a large accomodation capacity.

Ms. Anya Niewierra ( VVV. South Limburg) says:

We spread the visitors. The capacity of Limburg is comparable to that of Amsterdam. Here there is room for 11 million overnight stays and in Amsterdam for 13 million. We are one of the largest tourist regions in the country.

In addition, Van de Wiel has secured 3,000 hotel rooms in and around Maastricht in preparation for the possible arrival of the Eurovision Song Contest to Maastricht.

Transport

At MECC Maastricht, people from the location, municipality and province meet every week to prepare the bid. For example, 3000 hotel rooms have already been reserved and they have mapped out all the facilities.

Ms. Daniëlle Bronckers (MECC) says:

We also have discussions with bus companies that can transport everyone from hotels to the venue. Now that we have all the requirements, we can make that concrete.

The candidate cities

Nine cities/regions have so far signed up for the organization of the Eurovision Song Contest next year. They are:

• Amsterdam
• Rotterdam
• The Hague
• Utrecht
• Maastricht / Limburg
• Arnhem
• Breda
• Den Bosch
• Leeuwarden / Friesland.

Other cities that also want to give it a try can still submit a bidbook to the organizing entities.

Deadline for bid submission set

The deadline for cities/regions to submit their bids has been set to 10 July 2020. NPO, AVROTROS and NOS are aiming to announce the name of the 2020 ESC host city in August.

The 2020 Eurovision Song Contest will be co-produced by three Dutch public broadcasters AVROTROS, NOS and NPO in liason with the EBU.

The dates of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest are yet to be confirmed and unveiled. The Netherlands will have the honour of hosting the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest thanks to Duncan Laurence‘s epic Eurovision victory in Tel Aviv.