ITALY – 17 cities and provinces submitted proposals for hosting the Eurovision 2022 edition. Some also criticized those who didn’t (ie. Naples). But if you check the RAI/EBU requirements for hosting the top music event of the planet, you can easily see that out of the 17 bids only 3 can actually proceed to the final phase:

Turin, Bologna, and Milan

Between 23 and 28 May 2021, many cities across Italy expressed interest in hosting the contest. Representatives from the cities of Bologna, Milan, Pesaro, Naples and Turin voiced their interest, as well as the Mayor of Reggio Emilia, Luca Vecchi, who hoped to host the contest in the new RCF Arena, the largest open-air arena in Europe with a capacity of 100,000 spectators. The mayors of Rome, Rimini and Florence soon after also expressed interest in hosting the contest and were joined by Sanremo, Verona and Bari. Marco Di Mai, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, also suggested that if Rimini were to host the contest, it should be a co-production with San Marino RTV

On 7 July 2021, Italian host broadcaster RAI and the EBU launched the bidding process and published a list of criteria and requirements for the host city and venue:

• The venue must be available for at least 6 weeks before the contest and one week after the conclusion of the contest;
• The venue must be indoors with air-conditioning, have a well-defined perimeter and an audience capacity in the main hall of around 8,000 – 10,000 during the event;
• The venue must have a main hall with the capacity to house the set and all other requirements needed to produce a high-level broadcast production and have ample space within easy access of the main hall to support additional production needs, such as a press center, delegation spaces, dressing rooms, artist facilities, staff facilities, hospitality, audience facilities, etc.;
• The host city must have an international airport no more than 90 minutes from the city;
• The host city must have over 2,000 hotel rooms in the area close to the event.

In the first phase of this process, any interested cities were to present their bid through certified email by 12 July 2021, after which RAI and the EBU would proceed to send all of them a bid book with more detailed requirements for the cities to submit their plans for review.

On 9 July 2021, the city of Turin officially announced its bid. On the same day, the city of Pesaro did the same, proposing the Vitrifrigo Arena as a possible venue to host the event. They were followed by Bologna and Jesolo on 12 July, and Rimini and Bertinoro (jointly with Forlì and Cesena) on 13 July. On 13 July 2021, RAI announced that 17 cities had submitted their bid for hosting the contest and would be provided the following day with the bid books.

They will have until 4 August 2021 to draft and submit their detailed plans, among which the choice will be made by the end of the month.

🇮🇹 If those three cities are really the only ones fulfilling RAI's demands which one you would like to visit for Eurovision 2022?#oikotimes #eurovision #jesc #sanremo #festivaldacanção #nrkmgp #melfest #eurovisiongr #umk #euroviisut #ltvsupernova #ema #eurovisionagain

— OIKOTIMES (@theoikotimes) July 15, 2021

THE BIDS

• CITIES: Bologna, Genoa, Florence, Milan, Rome, Turin, Trieste
• PROVINCE CAPITALS: Alessandria, Matera, Pesaro, Rimini, Viterbro
• MUNICIPALITIES: Acireale (Catania), Bertinoro di Romagna (Forlì – Cesena), Jesolo (Venice), Palazzolo Acreide (Syracuse), Sanremo (Imperia)