Tel Aviv 2019

Teddy Stadium being adapted to host Eurovision

Plan’s for next year’s contest are in full swing! MAKO.co.il report that Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium is a serious contender to host the contest. The stadium will however require some adjustments.

Making Teddy Stadium Eurovision ready

With the broadcaster keen for the event to take place in Jerusalem, they see Teddy Stadium as an ideal choice of venue.  The stadium has a holding capacity of 31,733,  a significant increase to Lisbon’s Altice Arena which housed a maxiumum of 20,000.

Renovation plans published by the tabloid show a roof being installed to it’s current open-air design. The significant change would see the venue fall in line with EBU regulations which state that a hosting venue must be indoors.

The proposed renovation scheme would be expected to take an estimated 4-5 months to complete, at an estimated cost of $44 million. This is in addition to funds set aside by the broadcaster in order to successfully host the event. The director of renovation company DS Construction spoke of the task;

“Once we realised that Israel will host the Eurovision Song Contest next year, we decided not to wait and started planning the construction which would cover the entire roof of the Teddy Stadium.”

Meeting ‘in the coming days’ will discuss options

The Israeli broadcaster will meet with the EBU as well as the Municipality of Jerusalem in the coming days. They will discuss their preliminary plans for next year’s event.  The latter confirmed that both Teddy Stadium and Pais Arena were the two venues with the most potential. The Municipality also revealed that they had discussed both venues already. A spokesperson for the Jerusalem Municipality spoke of the meetings. They released the following statement:

“Eurovision is an international event which received hundreds of millions of viewers around the world. We see great importance in this event and preparing for this city, in collaboration with the government will see us tackle a wide range of issues”

Petah Tikva joins the bidding race

Yesterday, we revealed how Petah Tikva had joined Jerusalem in the race to hold the 2019 contest. Many fans were hoping for Tel Aviv, but the city has already ruled itself out. The Mayor of Tel Aviv didn’t think his city should be the host for Eurovision 2019.

Petah Tikva is the fifth biggest city in Israel and is located only ten kilometers east of Tel Aviv. The city is part of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area.

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