Can Kiev host Eurovision 2017?

Yesterday’s news whittled down the six hosting cities down to three, with Dnipro, Kyiv and Odessa being the three lucky cities to still be in the race to host Eurovision 2017.
Dnipro proposed to host the contest in the DniproEuroArena, which has a capacity of approximately 9,500. Quite modest but nonetheless it definitely has potential. Odessa is the other potential city, proposing to host in the ‘Chornomorets Stadium which has a slightly larger capacity than Dnipro of 10,000-12,000. Someone to not shy away from giving her opinion as to where she would like the contest to be hosted is the woman who has brought the contest back to the country, Jamala. About Odessa she said “It’s delightful, the people are delightful, the air from the sea.”

The final country and one that we will look at in further detail is Kyiv. Kyiv have proposed the ‘Palace of Sports’, which is the same arena that hosted ‘Eurovision 2005’ and ‘Junior Eurovision 2009’ and has an approximate capacity of 10,000. Now that all sounds promising considering the Eurovision history in the city and arena, but wait for it.
The 2017 IIHF World Championship tournament is due to take place between 22nd- 28th April 2017. Of course, in order for full preparation to take place smoothly, there needs to be a six week period in which the venue needs to be available. With the World Championships taking place in the ‘Palace of Sports’ this will prove extremely difficult.
However, now the Ukrainian Ice Hockey Federation are struggling to get the Sports Palace to sign the lease for them to be able to host the World Championships, and this is something that is required by the IIHF (governing body) and is a matter of urgency.

The Palace of Sports, which hosted both Eurovision 2005, and Junior Eurovision 2009
The President of the Federation has written to the Prime Minister urging them to put pressure on the Sports Palace and to get the required paperwork completed for the Championships.
Furthermore, Georgi Zubko, Chair of the Organising Committee for hockey championships was quoted as saying “It’s important for Kyiv to host a sports events, not only for Ukrainian hockey, but for the entire country. We received a lot of confidence from other nations by being selected, and we don’t want to lose that. We have therefore asked the Minister of Youth and Sport for a solution, because there is nowhere else in the country where we can organise the World Ice Hockey Championship”

Now we know that Kyiv has a venue in reserve to host which is the ‘International Exhibition Centre’ that has a capacity of around 13,000. what will happen? Will Kyiv be able to host in ‘Palace of Sports’ or will the venue be forced to pull out. Stay tuned at Escxtra.com
Source: http://www.jegkorongblog.hu/2016/07/21/ukrajna-kuzd-a-divizio-1a-s-vb-megtartasaert/#post-176492