Maastricht v Rotterdam for Eurovision 2020

After receiving bids from five cities in The Netherlands, the Dutch Host Broadcaster, in consultation with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and technical experts, ruled Arnhem, Den Bosch and Utrecht from the race.

It is now a race between two cities: Maastricht and Rotterdam with Executive Producter of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest Sietse Bakker saying that they were “convinced Maastricht and Rotterdam offer everything that a Host City requires”

For the cities bidding we looked at the city, how expensive a room would be for a week in mid-May and how on you could travel there from Australia. Here’s a reminder of what we found for the two remaining cities.

Maastricht

Pop: 121,051

Travel: Fly to Brussels, 1 hour 20 minutes by train. Fly to Dusseldorf, 2 hour train. Fly to Amsterdam, 2 hours 30 minutes by train. Fly to Frankfurt, 2 hours 25 minutes by train.

Hotel: $2000-8000

Maastricht has been gaining steam in their bid to host the contest. Located in the south of The Netherlands and closer to major cities in Belgium and Germany than the capital, it would be a true 'European' contest. They intend to host it at the Maastricht Exhibition & Conference Centre with a capacity of 20,000. The bid team made a grand entrance yesterday and have the support of famous violinist Andre Rieu. They also put together this bid video you can find below.

Rotterdam

Pop: 644,527

Travel: Flight to Amsterdam, 26 minutes by train.

Flight to Rotterdam (via additional stop in Europe)

Hotel: $2000-5,000

The bid is also supported by nearby city The Hague and is the favourite after Amsterdam pulled out. The largest city bidding intends to host the contest in the Ahoy Arena with a capacity of 16,000. It has hosted Junior Eurovision, the MTV European Music Awards and also the annual Rotterdam ATP Tennis Open. The team also put together a bid video you can find below.

In polls of Australians on our social media channels, we have found 70%+ have been in favour of Rotterdam hosting the event.

Those organising Eurovision 2020 will visit the potential host cities to assess their bid. The winning city will be announced in mid-August.