Eurovision victors singing the blues over hosting contest

WINNING Eurovision may have been the easy part for the whip-cracking Ukrainians, now they have to grapple with the thorny problem of where they will hold next year’s competition.

The mayor of Kiev, Oleksandr Omelchenko, has admitted that the capital does not have a concert hall big enough for the competition.

The city’s halls and stadia are either too small for the competition, which requires seating for a minimum of 10,000 spectators, or are not up to European standards.

The lack of a concert hall is just one of the difficulties for the former Soviet republic which has a GDP per person of just 2,600. Even without the problems of finding a suitable concert hall or stadium it would cost the country at least 3m to host the event.

Even considerably richer Ireland, struggled when victories in four out of five years during the 1990s left the national broadcaster, RTE, with severe financial difficulties.

Omelchenko said that the city currently has no appropriate concert hall for the event. He added that such a venue would have to seat between 15,000 and 20,000 spectators. The city’s largest arena, the Palace of Sports, is able to accommodate 8,000 to 10,000.

The interior of the Palace of Sports was built to old Soviet standards and would not measure up to European norms.

"The time to prepare is short - merely a year - but we will be looking for ways," Omelchenko said.

But Yuriy Melnyk, a spokesman for the National Television Company of Ukraine, which will organise the event for Eurovision, dismissed the worries.

He said: "The most likely option is that some of the older venues around Kiev will be renovated for the competition. There are a number of options and you can be confident that we shall put on a great show which will bring Ukraine to the attention of the world.

"I know that the time is short, but things can move pretty quickly here. All we need is the will to get things done, and I am sure that we have that."

Hoteliers in the Ukrainian capital have already begun offering Eurovision accommodation deals, but there are question marks over the standard.

Anna Korniyenko, a Scottish-based Ukrainian travel writer, said: "They have big problems with accommodation. They have not built any quality hotels since Soviet times. What has happened is that some of the old Soviet hotels have been refurbished. But I don’t think what would be called a five-star hotel over there would be regarded as five-star by visitors for Eurovision.

"The other problem will be a lack of willingness to accept help and expertise from outside. They don’t have much time to get a hall ready for the contest, but there will be expertise out there they could draw on. But there will be this attitude that they should not accept help from outside - that will cause big problems."

Despite the cost of the event, Ukraine remains gripped by Eurovision fever. They won the contest with the most energetic performance of the night, which featured high-kicking Cossack dancers, fires and whips.

Ruslana Lizhichko, the singer who won the contest, was last week awarded the Ukrainian equivalent of the MBE for artists, an award usually only given to the performers after a lifetime of achievement.