Eurovision 2020: NPO to visit the two candidate cities

Just yesterday, following a thorough examination of the candidates’ bids for the organization of the next Eurovision contest, as we had mentioned in our previous article, the responsible  committee of the Dutch broadcaster NPO announced officially that only two cities of five candidates meet the EBU’s criteria for hosting the next Eurovision: Maastricht and Rotterdam.
As expected, and without losing time, NPO executives have begun today the  visits to the two cities to see and discuss in detail everything that each city has in its  bid as well as to look closely at the structures that will host the music contest.
Their first stop is Maastricht, where they will mainly inspect the Maastricht MESC, with a capacity of 20,000 spectators proposed by the city to host the contest, as well as the other necessary structures such as accommodation and easy transfer of delegation  and fans. Significant weight is also given to the other venues and location  of the side events such as Euroclub, Eurovision Village, Opening Ceremony, Red Carpet, Press Center, Delegation Bubble etc.
Tomorrow,  NPO travels to Rotterdam, heading mainly to Rotterdam Ahoy, the venue proposed for the contest, and the other locations proposed for all the side events.
In both cases, NPO  will also have meetings with officials from the two cities involved in organizing the event to gain a fuller picture of the potential of cities based on the files they have submitted and to inform EBU afterwards.

It is worth mentioning that Rotterdam strongly wants to host  the event, which is apparent from the intention of the Southern Holland province to boost the city with an extra 1 million euros if it takes over the organization. At the same time,Rotterdam claims  as its strong point a very good network as well as its excellent connection with most European cities through two airports (Schiphol International Airport and Rotterdam-The Hague Airport), a point that is lagging behind Maastricht.
Whatever the case, the on-the-spot review is in progress and we expect any information from these inspects.