More than two months ago, Switzerland was crowned the winners of the contest, then sometime last month, the deadline for bidding was set, with 4 bids in the end, and now we’re down to the last 2 picks, before knowing which city will host the contest next month.
2 cities left
As pointed out before, the bidding deadline was last month, where 4 bids were officially presented, and now we’re down to only 2 choices. The 2025 contest will either go to Genève or Basel . With that in mind, let’s take a final look at the remaining candidate cities.
Basel
Geographically: The city is located is the far north of Switzerland, showed into a tri-point corner, which shares its border with both France and Germany, and in fact, should the trip go to Basel next year, you’ll most likely enter through either the French or German border. One of Europe’s greatest rivers even flow through the city, which is the Rhine. The city is the 3rd most populated, in all of Switzerland.
Airport: Speaking about crossing borders, in order to reach Basel by air travel, you’ll most likely land at the EuroAirport, which is located within the French border. The airport is indeed a major international airport in Switzerland, but is the smallest one of the country’s 3 largest ones, and despite there being various routes connected with the airport, it is still quite limited. The airport gets towards 10 million visitors per year.
Transportation: Basel has its very own tram system, and would probably be the go-to method for transportation around the city, since the one in Basel is also the largest in all of Switzerland. Trams even reach near the airport, but otherwise the train is also a one stop ride between city and airport. Buses are also an option in the city, but a quick glance on the tram map, makes everything reachable, both within and outside the city.
Arena: The city has submitted two potential venues, the first one being the St. Jakob-Park , which is a football stadium and the other one being St. Jakobshalle, which is an indoor arena. Clearly the football stadium is indeed far larger, but would require a roof. The football stadium is home to many times Swiss champions FC Basel 1893, who even supports welcoming the contest to its arena, which back in 2008 also hosted some of the European Championship games. Of course, it’s the indoor arena, that would most likely host the contest, which would be able to have 12.400 spectators. The indoor arena is one of the largest in all of Switzerland, and usually hosts the “Swiss Indoors” which is an annual tennis tournament, where none other than Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer have been victorious a record number of times.
Culture: Despite its location next to both the German and French border, this city is more on the German side, with the majority speaking German, and even more Italian speakers than French. It is considered the cultural capital of Switzerland, hosting lots of museums, secular buildings and churches, which most of them are actually heritage sites. Apparently, the zoo in Basel is the thing to check out, being the second most visited attraction in all of Switzerland.
Final Words: Monetary-wise, this bid was no way near among the top. However, Basel has the airport, the transport, the arena, the capacity, the accommodation and more than enough to keep visitors happy for the duration of the contest. This might be the reason why the city was one of the shortlisted cities, because why overspend your budget, when you have most things ready to use in advance, so should the hosting rights go to this Northern Swiss city, we can surely expect everything to be ready. Whether the city wish to spend more on Eurovision-related activities during its hosting duties, is probably the greatest question.
Genève
Geographically: The city is located in the very far south-west of Switzerland, almost forced into the depths of France. Only going north will keep you inside Switzerland, any other direction will be towards a French border, or into the great lake, which is named after the city itself, Lake Genève. Despite its location around France, it is the 2nd most populated city, in all of Switzerland.
Airport: If you wish to take the trip next year, then you’ll most likely end up at Genève Airport. This airport is located right next to the French border, as in, the runways literally make part of the border. The airport is recognized as an international airport with more than 15 million yearly visitors, it’s the second largest in the entire country, and has many connecting flights to all around Europe.
Transportation: Genève make great use of transportation methods, most notable from the airport is usually at the railway station, but nearby busses, trolleys and trams can also take visitors to the city-center. The railways are considered mostly when travelling further into France. Should anyone feel adventurous, and travel more around in the canton itself, this is also easily possible from the central station.
Arena: Should the city be awarded the hosting duties, the contest will be hosted at Palexpo, which is annually used Geneva International Motor Show, and has also hosted multiple other sporting events, most notably within the sport of Tennis. The downside, would probably be that the exposition hall will only be able to host less than 10.000 spectators. It has however been said, that the city and the complex will make use of extra space, and should be more than capable to handle the task of hosting duties. Probably another great aspect, it the location of the complex, which is right next to the airport.
Culture: Being surrounded by the French border, the city is obviously also more heavily French speaking. However, thanks to the city’s international appeal, English is also a very commonly used language. This is probably due to all the international organizations, which have their headquarters located in this city. Genève is also rich for its various churches, museums and even archeological sites, with even the local opera house, having the largest stage in all of Switzerland.
Final Words: Easily, the worst the city got going for it, is the arena where they wish to host it, by being questionable small. On the other hand, when it comes to money, Genève is where most of it will come from. Less worry about transportation, when the airport and arena is so close. As long you can reach the city center from the airport, which you easily can with how much transportation they got going, no worries there. This city is used to international visitors, so sure, this might feel less Swiss, but this bid could potentially be more focused on making it a party for anyone, who decides to join the activities.
Who will host it then?
Of course, it came as a rather big surprise to most, when the favorite to host it all, that being Zürich, didn’t even make the cut. A poll conducted even by the German branch of the Swiss broadcaster(SRF) themselves, showed that 46% of the votes were hoping that Zürich would host. The poll had close to 9200 votes at the time of closing. Basel ranked second with 22% and Genève ranked 3rd with 17%. To not much surprise, Bern ranked last, but still close to the two finalist bids, with 15%.
We even ran our own poll for a week, on our Twitter(X) page where we asked, whether #YOU would prefer Genève or Basel as the 2025 host city, and it was quite close, but Basel still took the majority of the votes:
Since we're still experiencing some technical issues with our site, then let's have a poll! 🗳️
🇨🇭Which of the 2 remaining cities do #YOU hope do host #ESC2025? 🤔
— escYOUnited (@ESCunited) July 19, 2024
Which city do #YOU think will end up hosting the contest and will we see #YOU next year in Switzerland?
Let’s hear from #YOU on our forum site right HERE, or visit us on Facebook, X(Twitter), Instagram, Youtube, TikTok and Discord.
Source(s): SRG SSR.ch & Eurovision.TV (Both in English)
