[gottago]

I’m not sure why you’d list Aberdeen but not Bristol. The former seems to have a larger Airport, not sure they’d want Eurovision to be used as a test event for a new venue though and not sure on what the transport links are like from the city to the airport.

Because Aberdeen has an open arena while Bristol's is due for completion a year after the event. I'm sure Bristol will go to the effort of trying to convince that they can finish the space sooner but why would the BBC risk it when there's a number of other ready to go options on the table?

I know airport and transport links are a consideration but as I said in the other place I think the vast majority of cities do meet the requirements anyway and many have superior links to a few cities that have hosted it in the recent past. The arena is going to be absolute first and foremost priority in their ultimate decision.

I’m sure the shortlist will just be what the BBC/EBU want it to be, no reason they won’t narrow it down to 2 or 3.

Well fairness is a pretty solid reason. The BBC's hardly going to discount a load of appropriate cities because the production team doesn't fancy going there. Their own FAQs says this:

"There will be two rounds. Once we have received applications, we will shortlist cities based on their ability to meet the requirements and their responses around capability and experience."

Last year RAI announced 4 shortlisted cities based on that criteria out of 17 who initially applied. If you look on the wiki for it you can see most of the other cities failed due to their arenas not being appropriate.