Gary Lineker, Clare Balding and Gabby Logan to host BBC Sports Personality of the Year at P&J Live

The city of Aberdeen is set to host BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2019, the biggest awards night in the sporting calendar, on December 15 live on BBC One from its brand-new events venue and arena, P&J Live.

This is the first time Aberdeen will host the event. The city is known for its sporting heritage as the birth place of Manchester United legend Denis Law and Open-winning golfer Paul Lawrie, and it is also home to Aberdeen FC, the club where Sir Alex Ferguson first made his name as a manager with such extraordinary success.

Presenters Gary Lineker, Clare Balding and Gabby Logan will take to the stage to celebrate a huge year of sport in front of an audience of 10,000 with millions more watching live on BBC One.

2019 has already seen several ground-breaking sporting moments, including the England men’s team winning the Cricket World Cup for the first time, the longest singles final in history at Wimbledon between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, the England football team getting to the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup and Tiger Woods achieving his fifth Masters title.

It also saw Wales claiming a record-breaking fourth Grand Slam in the Six Nations, the England netball team winning bronze at the Netball World Cup this summer, Liverpool lifting the Champions League for a sixth time, Manchester City winning the domestic treble, Alfie Hewett and Andy Lapthorne winning two US Open wheelchair tennis titles apiece – sealing both the singles and doubles crowns in their respective divisions – Laura Muir becoming the first athlete to achieve the double-double at the European Indoor Championships and Adam Peaty smashing his own 100m breaststroke world record to become the first man to go under 57 seconds and most recently, Europe winning the last three singles matches to seal a sensational Solheim Cup victory over the USA at Gleneagles.

Alongside the main event, a special BBC Festival of Sport will take place in Aberdeen on 13th & 14th December. The festival will offer local schoolchildren and members of the public the opportunity to try a variety of sporting activities with BBC Sport talent on hand to offer tips and encouragement.

Director of BBC Sport Barbara Slater said: “It’s been an extraordinary year of sport so far with many incredible moments and surely more to come. I have no doubt Aberdeen will be an excellent host city to help us celebrate them.”

Louise Stewart, Head of Entertainment at P&J Live, said: “This is a gamechanger for the venue and the city. We are ecstatic to be working with the BBC sports team and the wider Aberdeen stakeholder group on this flagship event. Hosting an event such as this was absolutely at the forefront of the city’s vision when planning this transformational project.”

Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events, said: “I’m delighted the BBC has chosen Aberdeen’s brand-new venue, P&J Live, to host this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. This world-class venue along with Aberdeen’s sporting pedigree makes it the ideal venue for the awards. It has been a great year of sport and I look forward to celebrating all the amazing achievements in Aberdeen this December.”