Sports show tickets sell out

Oct 17 2007 By Will Oliphant, Birmingham Mail

SPORT fans have been snapped up all the public tickets for this year's Sports Personality of the Year Award at the NEC in three hours - but already the tickets are going for four times the price on Ebay.

4,500 seats were up for grabs for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year, which will be held in Birmingham for only the second time in its 54-year history, on Sunday, December 9.

Editor of the show, Carl Doran, said he was disappointed that touts were taking advantage of people by turning a profit on the £25 tickets which were on the website within hours of phone lines closing.

"It is quite annoying because we made a conscious choice to keep the ticket price down this year. We didn't raise it and kept it the same as last year.

"We've tried to deal with it by limiting the number of tickets that people can buy and we will be asking for proof of ID.

"It's something we're looking into and we really don't want the public to have to pay that much for them. We would advise people not to buy these tickets off touts because if they don't have the right ID they might not get in."

He also said fans should keep an eye out because programme makers may decide to release another 500 tickets nearer to the event.

Mr Doran also praised Birmingham and said it was an ideal location for the popular celebration of Britain's sport.

"We were totally over the moon with the response from the local area last year and that is why were were keen on coming back.

"We were quite surprised when we first decided to make a move to Birmingham at just how many sporting events took place there with the athletics and the tennis and football and it's why it's such a great place for the show.

"It's such a central location that it's also an ideal place for people to come to from all over the country."