Earlier this week it was confirmed by swedish broadcaster SVT that the national selection Melodifestivalen is to be held in the new Friends Arena on the 9 of March 2013. As Sweden is tipped high among the bookmakers it looks like SVT is preparing for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest by announcing that Melodifestivalen will be held there.
The new arena located in Solna, a suburb located just north of Stockholm, is still under construction and will be ready on the 27 October 2012. The arena will replace the nearby arena Råsunda as the new national stadium for football and with it’s retractable roof it will be ready to host indoor concerts.
The capacity of the arena can be adjusted from 15 000 up to 65
000 spectators (depending on where the stage is placed). The exact
number of seats for next years has not yet been confirmed yet since
there is no ready solution for scenography and cameras.
Globen opened in 1989 and was the host of that years edition of
Melodifestivalen. In 2000 it hosted the Eurovision Song Contest and it
has has hosted every final of Melodifestivalen since 2002. The demand for tickets for Melodifestivalen has been extremely high
during the years. The final in the Ericsson Globe Arena (or the more commonly used name Globen) has been almost sold out within an
hour after the tickets have been released.
The new arena looks like the most possible choice to host a Eurovision if the contest returns to Sweden. Loreen is currently the favourite among the bookmakers to bring the contest back to Sweden, which would be for the fifth time in the history.
