MTV European Music Awards (EMAs): Liverpool hotel rush begins

Nov 1 2007 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

MORE than 2,500 hotel room nights have already been booked for the staging of the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs), the Daily Post can reveal.

It comes just a day after it was revealed the prestigious awards ceremony would be hosted at Liverpool’s new Arena and Convention Centre (ACC Liverpool) in November 2008.

The announcement was made in Munich, where this year’s award ceremony was held last night.

Liverpool can expect at least £33m of free publicity and exposure from hosting the awards, based on research carried out on last year’s hosts Copenhagen.

Although detailed research into the economic benefits is yet to be carried out, the free publicity and money from hotel rooms are likely to be the tip of the iceberg.

Bob Prattey, chief executive of ACC Liverpool, said it was a dream for the arena to have bagged such a prestigious event and it should act as a springboard to attracting big names in future.

More than 24m people are expected to watch the show live but millions more will tune in for follow up shows.

The most successful names in rock and pop will descend on the city on Thursday November 6, 2008.

Although the host and performers are yet to be announced Liverpool can expect the top names to be involved next year.

Over the years, presenters have included Robbie Williams, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera and the show is broadcast live on MTV Europe, MTV and most of the international MTV channels as well as online.

This year’s event which will be hosted by American rapper Snoop Dog with performances from Mika and the Foo Fighters.

The host city changes every year and so far, the United Kingdom has hosted the event twice – once in London and once in Edinburgh.

An economic study by independent consultants reported £8.9m worth of direct economic benefit for Scotland when Edinburgh hosted the awards four years ago.

Hotel bookings alone were valued at £2.2m.

Martin King, director of tourism at The Mersey Partnership, said the organisation had already sourced more than 2,500 hotel room night stays on behalf of organisers for guests, crew and other staff. “When our hotels are that busy we know the economic impact spreads far and wide.

“There is no reason to believe this event will be any different.”

Mr Prattey, who is in Munich to see how the event is staged, spoke to the Daily Post from the Olympiapark venue in Munich.

“You can’t overplay the importance of this for the arena and Liverpool – it’s absolutely awesome.

“It’s a dream come true for the arena, the team is delighted about it.”

Snoop Dogg wants to come to Liverpool

RAPPER Snoop Dogg has said he’d love to come to Liverpool for next year’s MTV Europe Awards, if the UK will allow it.

The US star, who hosted last night’s MTV awards in Munich, told Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley if the UK lifted its ban on him entering the country he would like to attend next year’s gig at the Echo Arena and Convention Centre.

Cllr Bradley said: “I asked him if he was coming to Liverpool next year. He said ‘if they let me in the UK I would love to’.”

It’s an ill wind . . .

A FREAK storm almost ruined Liverpool’s chances of securing the MTV Europe Awards, it emerged last night.

But chief executive of the Liverpool Culture Company, Jason Harborow, said that executives from the music channel were so impressed by the way his team handled the disaster it helped convince them the city was the best place to host the event.

Mr Harborow said executives from MTV visited the city on numerous occasions but a key visit in January was scuppered because of high-speed winds.

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.”

He said that the Culture Company could not take MTV around the building site at the arena because of the winds.

The MTV team were unable to catch a train or a plane because of the winds.

“I think we got them the last hotel room in the city.

“I went home thinking this has either completely scuppered our chances or the way we dealt with it will help us win it.”

“I am delighted that we got it. It’s a huge event with a worldwide audience.”