Sweden: The city of Stockholm in early talks, eager to host Eurovision 2024!
Today, at Kungsträdgården, a celebration to welcome Loreen back to Sweden was held, with thousands of people enthusiastically cheering while Loreen was performing “Tattoo” on the stage that was setup for the Hemkosten event!
According to Gustav Dahlander, Swedish journalist and SVT in-house expert for Melodifestivalen, during the event, Karin Wanngård, the Financial City Commissioner of Stockholm, stated when interviewed:
“Eurovision needs a big arena. To get a good party, you want a big audience, so of course, in that case it would primarily be Friends Arena.”
Karin Wanngård, Financial City Commissioner of Stockholm, in today’s on-stage interview:
“Eurovision needs a big arena. To get a good party, you want a big audience, so of course, in that case it would primarily be Friends Arena.”https://t.co/sqHnfpgbG1 #Eurovision
— Gustav Dahlander (@GustavDahlander) May 16, 2023
Friends Arena has a total capacity of approximately 60.000 people, but whenever it hosts Melodifestivalen Final Show, it gets halved, but can still host the impressive number of 30.000 people all seated. If Martin Österdahl selects Stockholm as the host city and Friends Arena as the hosting venue, then it can be one of the largest venues ever to host the contest!
Today was not the first time Stockholm expressed interest in hosting next year’s contest
According to major Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the City Hall of Stockholm had been in early talks with the financial center, the chamber of commerce and the Visit Stockholm insitution since the last weeks of March, following the victory of Loreen at the Swedish national selection process, Melodifestivalen!
The City of Stockholm, started planning internally way to early in advance, compared to when Måns Zemerlöw won, when Stockholm held their first meeting on the Monday directly after the victory. It seems like this time they wanted to be even more prepared.
According to the independent business organization, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, the last time Sweden took home the Eurovision Song Contest and hosted the show in 2016, the created tourism economic effects were around SEK 263 million (approximately 230 million Euros), in the money value of the time. After a projection of the income at today’s prices, the same number of visitors would yield revenues of more than SEK 310 million (approximately 275 million Euros). Admittedly, it costs a lot to organize the competition, but hosting the contest can still bring significant profits to the city.
Loreen wants Stockholm to host the contest in 2024!
During the Winner’s Press Conference at M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool, UK, after our own Andreas Papayiannakis asked Loreen how she feels about equalling the victories of Ireland in the contest, Loreen unapologetically stated, referring to Swedish Head of Delegation Lotta Furebäck, that she prefers Stockholm to host next year’s contest!
“It better be Stockholm man! We need to talk about this, but it better be Stockholm!”
You can watch the relevant video below:
Despite the fact that major football teams AIK and Hammarby Fotboll, that play during the season at Friends Arena and Tele2 Arena respectively, are refusing to move temporarily to other stadiums for six weeks, Stockholm City is so eager to host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, that it is very likely for all issues to be resolved soon. The football association is perfecly OK with moving games due to European Cup participation, so maybe they could just move one or two AIK home games a month or two. As for Tele2, Hammarby Fotboll and Djurgården can play at home for two days in a row, so Stockholm City hosting Eurovision 2024 seems doable.
Follow us in all our social media, so that you’ll not lose a thing of what’s happening Eurovision:
Stay tuned on EurovisionFun for all the news regarding Eurovision!
Sources: Aftonbladet, Gustav Dahlander, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce
