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The 2009 Eurovision Song Contest will
take place at the Olympiyski Indoor Arena in downtown Moscow. The venue, which recently hosted the Russian Music Awards,
has an enormous capacity and has been the
home of several other prestigious events.
The Olimpiyski was built for the 1980
Summer Olympics, for which it hosted the basketball and boxing events. A part of the Olimpiyski Sports Complex, it makes
up one architectural ensemble with another
venue, constructed at the same time, the swimming pool.
The venue is enormous, and can hold
up to 80,000 people. It has hosted the Davis Cup finals on several occasions, and is the home of the Kremlin Cup tournament.
When smaller indoor sports are held at the
venue, such as tennis or basketball, only 1/4th of the floor space is used. Capacity
at this configuration can vary
between 10,000 and 16,000 people. The arena also hosted the 1999 FIBA EuroStars
and the 2005 Euroleague Final
Four.
For the upcoming Eurovision
Song Contest, an audience of some 16,000 people is expected to attend
each of the three live shows. Tickets
will also be made available for two of the three Dress Rehearsals for
each event.
The Olimpiyski is also expected to host
the Press Centre of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, bringing media facilities and the stage back under one
roof. Since 2007, the Press Centre and the stage
area were seperated from each other.
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