Aberdeen would be delighted to host next year's Eurovision song contest, but the bookies think the Granite City's chances of landing the big event are slim.
City councillors yesterday showed their support for bringing one of the world's biggest music and TV events to Bucksburn, as a £30,000 Eurovision bid was approved.
The UK is being considered as a potential host for next year's contest amid doubts over whether champions Ukraine, who triumphed this year with Kalush Orchestra, will be able to welcome it.
Anticipation over which city might get to hold the mega event has been growing over the past two weeks, with Glasgow now the odds-on favourite with bookies Smarkets, while London is the next best in the betting at 4-1.
The bad news for Aberdeen is that it is rated a 19-1 outsider, though - as we all know - the bookies sometimes get their odds wrong.
Many in the north-east have been hoping a successful Aberdeen bid could bring the sparkle and smoke machine spectacular back to Scotland for the first time since Edinburgh hosted in 1972.
The Press and Journal says that among those top Eurovision fanatics is the council's Conservative group leader Ryan Houghton, who introduced a motion at Wednesday's full meeting to commit tens of thousands of pounds towards bringing the show to the P&J Live venue.
Supporting Aberdeen effort
The council promptly agreed to put the cash towards supporting the effort following a report from chief officer for city growth Richard Sweetnam.
He told the committee that a short selection process will be held to select a host city.
Mr Sweetnam added: "That's ultimately a decision for the BBC. However for Aberdeen, anecdotal feedback on events, for example Sports Personality of the Year in 2019, has been very positive and the BBC is familiar with the venue, the team at P&J Live and also the city's credentials."
Mr Houghton said he was glad that the council agreed to support a Eurovision bid which would be an “incredible” event for Aberdeen to host.
He added: "The economic benefit would be significant and it's imperative now that all our politicians get behind the city."
The SNP have already shown their support for the bid, with the party's MSPs and MPs writing a letter to BBC director general Tim Davie asking him to consider Aberdeen.
Due to the continuing armed conflict in Ukraine, the European Broadcasting Union has announced that the next year's contest would need to be held elsewhere.
There were more than 160million viewers worldwide for the 2022 event, so any host city would get massive exposure - though the costs of staging Eurovision have been put at up to £25million.