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 the brand new P&J Live arena.

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, Tiger Woods achieving his fifth Masters title, 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 13^th & 14^th 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.

Nominations for this year’s Sports Personality of the Year Unsung Hero Award open today. The award will this year be supported by Made by Sport, an organisation that champions the power of sport to change lives and raises vital funds to support it. The Unsung Hero award celebrates individuals that give up their own free time to help others take part in grassroots sports. To put forward your nomination, simply visit bbc.co.uk/unsunghero

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.”

The ceremony will be shown on BBC One and BBC One HD and tickets will go on sale on the 11^th October from 9am. For more information, please visit bbc.co.uk/sport/sports-personality

Further exciting announcements about BBC Sports Personality of the Year will be made in due course.

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