Tick tock, tick tock, the clock is ticking as the D Day for the five candidate cities vying to host Eurovision 2020 to submit their respective Eurovision bids to NPO is fast approaching.

Tomorrow, Wednesday 10 July, all five pontential host cities are set to submit their respective bidbooks to the Dutch public broadcaster NPO in Hilversum by 12:00 CET. Maastricht, Rotterdam, Arnhem and Den Bosch will be sending a strong admistrative delegation to Hilversum’s Mediapark.  We yet don’t know how Utrecht plans to submit its bid to the organization as the city will not send a represensative or delegation to Hilversum.

A spokesperson from the Municipality of Utrecht has confirmed this :

We do it differently. That fits with Utrecht.

After a short presentation the Mayor or Councilor of each of the cities will officially hand the so called bid book to NPO’s chairman Shula Rijxman.

Dutch newspaper AD.nl reports that there are differences  between Utrecht and the other four candidate cities vying to host the competition next year.

In Den Bosch, Arnhem, Rotterdam and Maastricht, local politicians back their cities’ respective candidacies.

The municipality of Rotterdam assumes that the organization costs the city around 15 million euros. Rotterdam states that this event is worth it.

The Mayor of Rotterdam Mr. Aboutaleb says:

I think that organizing the Eurovision Song Contest equals 15 to 20 years of city marketing.

The province of South Holland supports the candidacy of Rotterdam with a million euros. The municipal councils of Arnhem and Den Bosch have also agreed to fund the competition with a financial contribution, whilst the amount in question is still a secret.

Reportedly in sheer contrast Utrecht’s politcians are reluctant to back the city’s Eurovision bid and fund the hosting of the event.

The 2020 Eurovision Host City is set to be unveiled in August along with the dates of the competition.

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