NOS, the Dutch national broadcaster has announced that the 2020 Eurovision organizing body is to shortlist the potential host cities from five to two next week. But which two cities will make it to the final round? Will it be Rotterdam and Maastricht?
Last Wednesday five cities officially submitted their respective Eurovision 2020 bid books to NPO at the Media Park in Hilversum: Maastricht, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Den Bosch and Arnhem.
NOS, one of the three Dutch public broadcasters organizing the 2020 ESC edition, has stated that two cities will battle for hosting the song contest as of next week, without unveiling the names of the alleged cities.
The ESC 2020 Committee has thoroughly studied and assessed all five bid books and is in the process of shortlisting them according to the conditions and requirements the cities meet in order to host the event.
NOS goes on to report that Utrecht and Den Bosch are reportedly out of the race, leaving Arnhem, Maastricht and Rotterdam in the battle.
Utrecht lacks the support of its municipality, Den Bosch does not have a great hotel capacity and Arhem’s Gelredome lacks extra halls for housing the dressing rooms, press centre, etc..
This has lead to a frenzy in the Dutch media, with the rumour mill running strong amid great speculation on the alleged two shorlisted cities with many local news sites tipping a two horse race between Maastricht and Rotterdam.
The names of the two cities will be unveiled next week, hereafter the committee will visit the shortlisted cities and check out the potential venues, premises, infrastructure etc.
We must note that NOS has not stated which cities are in or out of the race, so we have to wait for the official announcement next week in order to find out which two cities will battle for the right to host the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest.
The 2020 Eurovision Host City is expected to be unveiled by mid August.
