Here’s how much Birmingham’s failed bid to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 cost

The cost of Birmingham’s failed bid to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 has been revealed.

The city missed out on hosting the Eurovision song contest for what would have been the second time. West Midlands mayor Andy Street said Brum didn’t make the final shortlist due to ‘a technical issue around the venue’s roof height’.

The final sum of Birmingham’s bid to host the contest came to a total of £1,707.40.

The majority of the costs were incurred by the bid video, which cost Birmingham City Council £1,025. It was announced last month that Glasgow and Liverpool were the two UK cities to be named in the final shortlist, out of a crop that included Birmingham, London, Manchester, Leeds Sheffield, and Newcastle.

£500 was also spent on the work done with Ukrainian creative group Centrala Space, which designed the city’s Eurovision bid logo. A workshop took place at the Council House in Victoria Square in early August, during which artists from Centrala helped create a logo that reflected Ukrainian culture, music and heritage.

Ukraine would have normally been the host nation for Eurovision 2023 after winning the 2022 competition. However, the ongoing war with Russia meant second-place UK agreed to be the hosts.

The final cost incurred in the bid was train travel, which came to a total of £182.40.

Birmingham’s bid was ultimately rejected because of technical issues around the height of the NEC’s roof. West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said it was an ‘incredibly frustrating reason’ to fall short, but the city will ‘continue to bid for the biggest events’.

The cost of the other unsuccessful bids is yet to come to light, but successful host cities have gone on to spend between £8.5m and £21m on the event. Baku in Azerbaijan sent a massive £48m on a custom-built venue for Eurovision 2012.

Glasgow is currently the bookies’ favourite to host the competition in 2023. No official date has been set for an announcement of the winner, but several sources believe it could be within the next few days.

A message from the editor:Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. Find out more about who’s who in the team, and our editorial values. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going.