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Preview: Sports Personality of the Year comes to Sheffield
It is the hottest ticket in town.
From those supporting Tom Daley in Plymouth to fans of Andy Murray in Glasgow, Ryan Giggs followers in Cardiff to Mark Cavendish's disciples on the Isle of Man, all eyes will be fixed firmly on Sheffield tomorrow night.
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year show is sport's chance to roll out the red carpet for its superstars, household names, heroes and villains.
Jessica Ennis, the 23-year-old Sheffield heptathlete who put Olympic heartache behind her to win the world title this summer, carries the hopes of a city and a county on her shoulders.
Gary Lineker, Sue Barker and Jake Humphrey will guide the 11,000 people in the audience and the millions watching at home through sport's big night out, handing out awards for team, coach and young personality of the year, as well as a lifetime achievement award for golfer Seve Ballesteros and a special recognition award that will remain a surprise until the announcement.
Then when the public have voted, the 2009 Sports Personality of the Year will be revealed from the 10-strong shortlist and one sporting star will have the honour of joining the likes of Henry Cooper, Seb Coe, Nigel Mansell, Mary Peters, Daley Thompson, Nick Faldo, Dorothy Hyman, Anita Lonsbrough and Chris Hoy in having a title that will stay with them forever.
Presenter Humphrey said: "I'm going to be looking out into this massive crowd and there'll be faces like Fabio Capello, David Coulthard and Amir Khan staring back at me."
"You're always nervous when you're presenting in front of so many
people but this is going to be massive.
"Since we've taken the show on the road it's broadened the appeal."
More than 100 production staff moved into the Arena on Monday and began erecting the set, which is a grand stage flanked by two tunnels, with a staircase as its centrepiece. High above are two banners with the faces of all 10 nominees.
Fine-tuning, sound testing and final preparations will be conducted right up until the final moments before the show goes live.
"This is the biggest show we've ever done with 11,000 people set to file in here on Sunday," said BBC editor Carl Doran.
"We've also got the post-show party in iceSheffield and a marquee
tunnel will link the two buildings.
"It's been a big logistical challenge from the outset.
"But we've been keen on coming to Sheffield from the start and
Sheffield has been keen to have us.
"The fact that having Jessica in the 10 nominees has been beneficial and if she wins it will bring the house down."
"I'd love to see Jessica or Tom up there with the trophy," said Olympic silver medallist Leon Taylor, Daley's Sheffield-based mentor and a good
friend of local favourite Ennis.
"To think it's just five years since I first met a 10-year-old Tom Daley. Since then he's been to an Olympics, won a world title and now he's nominated for Sports Personality of the Year. It's fantastic for him.
"Jess is a really good friend of mine. We both used the facilities at EIS like the weight room and massage therapy.
"In 2006 we drove down to Birmingham together for the Sports
Personality and now she's up there nominated for the award.
"It's a great honour for Sheffield to host the event and it's going to be the biggest and best show yet."
Almost one in ten of the audience will be stars of the sporting world, who will account for 1,000 of the 11,000 tickets.
That means the event will be the largest in its history.
The attendance at Television Centre was restricted to 500 and expanded to 5,000 in Birmingham and 9,000 in Liverpool last year.
Sheffield Arena has hosted some of the biggest names in music but tomorrow's set is the grandest the venue has ever held. It is made up of 1,200 metres of truss and 25 motors are needed to hold up the set and the lighting to illuminate the tunnels on either side of the stage.
Sheffield Arena marketing manager Simon Bailey said it was the greatest tonnage of equipment ever used for a show at the Arena, "bigger even than when Paul McCartney was here".
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Weather for Yorkshire
Thursday 16 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
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