Another city joins the list of potential bids to host Eurovision 2026 next year in Austria. This time, however, it is not so much the city that is pushing for the hosting rights, but a venue: the Comer city horse-racing complex.
From Magna Racino to Comer City
Comer City is an equestrian racing resort founded in 2004 by Frank Stronach, as “Magna Racino”. After being bought by an Austrian subsidiary of a shipyard company in 2020, it was sold earlier this year to Luke Comer, who leads the real estate Comer Group with his brother Brian. The Comers are one of the richest families in Ireland, with 65-year-old Luke being particularly invested in horse breeding, training and racing.
The venue is used both as a racecourse but also as a concert venue, hosting Metallica in June 2024 and later on the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival. At both events, however, there were a lot of issues with the evacuation of the complex, with people waiting for hours in order to get into shuttles. Indeed, Comer City is not directly connected to the heart of Ebreichsdorf and the city itself is more than 20km away from Vienna, although a new trainline makes the city more accessible.
Plans to host Eurovision
Despite the doubts cast by last year’s experience, Luke Comer and his local team are confident that they could pull of an event as large as Eurovision.
The European Vision Song Contest is the perfect opportunity to present the advantages of our location and put the Lower Austria region into the international spotlight
Sigmund Kahlbacher, Managing Director of Comer City
Comer himself describe the location as “ideal”, with a planned capacity of 20,000 seats, as well as an additional capacity of 30,000 for a public viewing. In addition, the location would provide space for 1,500 press representatives.
Plans to create a roof and walls around the venues and seats were revealed on Monday, 26 May.
Support from the State of Lower Austria
As for other bids, the idea to host is not just supported by the bidding city but also by the local state government. Just like Switzerland and Germany, Austria is a federal country, so support from the local state is paramount to enforce your bid.
With at least two bids in the State of Lower Austria, however, State Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner did not name any specific city, but would like to see the contest in her region.
With his great performance at the Song Contest, JJ has made us all very proud and put our cultural nation in the international spotlight. It goes without saying that Lower Austria would be delighted if ORF [Austria’s public broadcaster] wanted to organise the Song Contest here.
Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Governor of Lower Austria
[…]
The Song Contest stands for values such as cohesion, peace and solidarity. So where would be a better venue than here in Lower Austria, which has seized Europe’s opportunities like almost no other region
Lower Austria is the state that surrounds Vienna, without including it, as the capital of Austria has been its own State for more than a hundred years. Ebreichsdorf is at the very south of the State, but only 25km away from Vienna and 20km away from the international airport.
Other potential bids
Sankt Pölten joins the following list of interested cities:
What do you think about this potential bid? Can Eurovision be hosted in Comer City? Is this Millstreet all over again? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media at @escxtra!
