Today, AD newspaper from The Netherlands is reporting that Maastricht is the EBU’s favoured host city for the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest in The Netherlands. If this proves to be the case, the MECC Maastricht would be the host venue.
It’s all about the money
The newspaper cites “inside sources” that Maastricht is the EBU’s top option. Nevertheless, Rotterdam is still working hard to steal away the hosting rights.
Maastricht Mayor Annemarie Penn-te Strake seemed confident in a quote earlier today in which she describes her city as “the most European city in The Netherlands”. Sources suggest that Maastricht is also much richer than “closest competitor” Rotterdam and are more likely to be able to stump up the 15 million euros needed to host this large-scale competition.
The “crossroads” of Europe
Other benefits of Maastricht are suggested to be its geographical advantage of being at the crossroads of The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany as well as its “historical city centre”.
Aside from Maastricht and Rotterdam, only Utrecht, Den Bosch and Arnhem remain in the race to hand in their “bid book” for their potential hosting plans. Yesterday, Amsterdam withdrew from the race.
