General: Gothenburg will not host Eurovision

The deadline to submit a bid to SVT to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 is ending today. Friends Arena in Stockholm, Malmö Arena in Malmö, and Scandinavium in Gothenburg submitted their applications to host Europe’s favorite show next year. As poplight.se informs, Scandinavium withdrew their bid today.

SVT requires the Arena where Eurovision is going to be hosted to be available from late April. However, a horse racing championship is going to be held in Gothenburg’s Scandinavium at the end of April, and thus is not available for other events. For the same reason, there might be a lack of hotel rooms in Gothenburg in the first week of Eurovision, so the city would be inadequate for hosting the Song Contest.

Malmö Arena and Friends Arena in Stockholm remain the two bids to host Eurovision next year. The decision on the city and the venue is going to be made and reveiled in early autumn.