Malmö is still very much in the host city race for Eurovision 2016, despite the various media reports stating that the city had withdrawn its bid.
In the wake amid the media speculation in Sweden today reporting that Malmö had decided to withdraw its bid to host the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, ESCToday decided to contact Malmö Arena directly in order to shed more light into the matter.
ESCToday has learnt that SVT sent out the 2016 Eurovision host city portfolio along with the necessary requirements to the interested cities and venues yesterday. Hence all cities wishing to bid for the event along with their venues have now got 3 weeks in order to prepare their bid and submit it to the Swedish broadcaster. Hereafter SVT will evaluate and study all submitted bids. SVT is expected to make an announcement revealing the 2016 Eurovision host city by mid July/early August.
The Malmö Arena told ESCToday:
It is still early days yet and no decision has been made regarding the 2016 Eurovsion Song Contest. We will have to study SVT’s requirements and evaluate everything along with the City of Malmö before making a decision.
Hence Malmö is not out of the race yet and has not decided to pull out of the 2016 Eurovision host city race. The city along with the venue will evaluate the requirements and make their decision.
So far Stockholm is bidding to host the Eurovision with 3 potential venues the Friends Arena, the Tele 2 Arena and the Ericsson Globen Arena, Sandviken with the Göransson Arena, Goteborg with Scandinavium and Linköping with the SAAB Arena.
The preliminary dates for the 2016 Eurvovision Song Contest have been set on 10, 12 and 14 May.
