IT is the city where Sir Alex Ferguson kickstarted his major Scottish honours managerial success story and is also the birthplace of the last Scots golfer to win the Open Championship.
Now Aberdeen has been chosen to host the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year and it will be only the second time the awards have been held in Scotland. The last time was in 2014 in Glasgow.
Presented by Gary Lineker, Clare Balding and Gabby Logan, this year’s awards will take place at the city’s world-class new entertainment venue P&J Live on December 15.
Broadcast live from the Granite City on BBC1 and BBC1 HD, the ceremony will celebrate a huge year of sport, attracting thousands to Aberdeen’s P&J Live, with even more expected to tune in to watch.
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Louise Stewart, head of entertainment at P&J Live, said: “This is a game changer 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 at the forefront of the city’s vision when planning this transformational project.”
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.”
Nine titles are up for grabs including Sports Personality of the Year, Greatest Sporting Moment, World Sport Star of the Year, Coach of the Year, Young Sports Personality of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement award.
This year has already seen several ground-breaking sporting moments, including the longest singles final in history at Wimbledon between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, Tiger Woods achieving his fifth Masters title, Liverpool lifting the Champions League for a sixth time and Manchester City winning the domestic treble.
The year has also seen Alfie Hewett and Andy Lapthorne winning two US Open wheelchair tennis titles apiece, 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 be the first man to go under 57 seconds.
Scotland’s women’s football team qualified for the World Cup before beating Jamaica 3-1 in their debut match, while Scotland’s rugby team defended the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham and, most recently, Europe won the last three singles matches to seal a sensational Solheim Cup victory over America at Gleneagles.
Aberdeen is the birthplace of many sporting legends including Denis Law, Joe Harper and Paul Lawrie.
Alongside the main event, the inaugural BBC Festival of Sport will take place in the city on December 13 and 14, giving local schoolchildren and the public the chance to try a variety of sporting activities, with BBC Sport talent on hand to offer tips and encouragement.
The first Scot to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year was swimmer Ian Black, who took home the trophy in 1958.
Black was only 17 when he boarded the train from Aberdeen to the London ceremony where he picked up the award.
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Motor racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart was the next Scot to be honoured for his achievements in 1973, while the first Scottish woman to be honoured, athlete Liz McColgan, had to wait until 1991.
Cyclist Sir Chris Hoy won the award in 2008 before Sir Andy Murray took home a treble in 2013, 2015 and 2016.
Sir Andy, the only person to have won the award three times, took Olympic gold, claimed his second Wimbledon title and became world number one in a remarkable 2016.
The tennis champion accepted the award via video-link from Florida in front of an audience of 12,000 at Birmingham’s Genting Arena.
After accepting the award he said: “A huge thanks to my wife and my daughter – she won’t know what this means yet, but maybe in a few years she will.
“Actually, I’ve got a bone to pick with my wife because about an hour ago she told me she’d voted for Nick Skelton. Not smart from her with Christmas coming up.”
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