According to the Ukrainian newspaper Pravda, the prime minister Volodymyr Groysman wants a transparant public selection process to determine which city should host the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Ukraine. The majors of the cities of Kiev, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa have all expressed their interest in the job, thus far.
The Ukrainian Prime Minister announced that he would like a bidding process to be set up in order for the bidding cities to have an equal opportunity to host the contest. Groysman also states that the people in Ukraine should have a say as to where the contest will be held next year. A national television station, TCH, already held a public poll amongst their public, and Lviv was the clear winner there for the 30.000 people who gave their opinion.
It will not be that easy, however, as there are several demands by the EBU towards the venue and host city. The venue needs to be able to handle enough people and most be up and ready weeks before the contest. The host city needs enough hotel capacity and decent public transportation. According to Taras Stetskiv, who worked for NTU at the time of the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest in Ukraine, Kiev is the only city that lives up to all the requirements by the EBU: “Lviv, for instance, is definitely not having a suitable arena.“
The Arena Lviv hosted three group stage matches in UEFA Euro 2012. However, it lacks a roof, a requisite for hosting the contest. Except for the city of Kiev, all other candidates have hinted towards a football stadium without a roof as possible venues. Deputy Chief of NTU and the Head of Delegation for Ukraine, Viktoria Romanova, says that the first organisational meeting for the contest will take place before the 8th of June 2016, during which the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and NTU will go through the technical requirements for the contest, as well as any training required for the contest to take place in Ukraine. Romanova also announced that the venue for the contest will be announced over the summer.