LAST CHANCE TO BOOK TICKETS FOR NEXT WEDNESDAY’S AWARDS
The Sports Journalists’ Association has slashed £10 off the price of members’ tickets
for its 61st annual British Sports Awards, sponsored by UK Sport and Sky Bet, being staged in London in December.
“We are always looking at ways of offering best value to our membership,” Randall Northam, the SJA Treasurer, said, “and restructuring our prices for our Sports Awards and the British Sports Journalism Awards next March allows us to do just that.”
Bookings are now being taken for the 61st SJA British Sports Awards, where the Sportsman, Sportswoman and Team of the Year – all chosen through a ballot of the SJA’s members – will be announced.
Last year’s winners, Rebecca Adlington and Chris Hoy, with five Beijing Olympic gold medals between them, are rated as unlikely to top the SJA ballot again in 2009.
So there could be new names on the trophies for the longest standing sporting awards in Britain. Heading the favourites’ lists are England cricket captains Andrew Strauss and Claire Taylor, athletics world champions Jessica Ennis and Phillips Idowu, F1 world championship pace setter Jenson Button, swimming world beater Gemma Spofforth, diver Tom Daley and Tour de France-winning cyclist Emma Pooley.
Already, several of Britain’s newest champions have accepted the SJA’s invitations to attend the gala lunch event, which will again be staged at The Brewery, Chiswell Street.
SJA members can purchase single tickets for £80 – that’s £10 less than in 2008, and a massive saving of £40 on the cost of a ticket for the event for non-members. “With our annual membership fee at £30, just by buying a ticket and attending this one event means that our members are quids in,” Northam said.
The price of the ticket includes a three-course lunch, half a bottle of wine and presence at one of the great sporting events of the year.
As a further benefit, SJA members wishing to bring a guest may purchase one additional ticket for £100, still £20 less than the cost of tickets to non-members.
Book tickets for the glittering SJA 61st annual British Sports Awards, being staged in London on December 9 – click here for details and booking form
Members attending the British Sports Awards on December 9 will also be able to collect their copy of the 2010 SJA Yearbook, the vital directory for all sports journalists which is due to be published on the same date.
Northam is at pains to point out that inclusion of a profile in the Yearbook is one of an ever-growing range of benefits of being a member of the SJA. Northam’s list includes:
□ One copy of the Yearbook (retail value £12)
â–¡ The right to a profile in the Yearbook (value? Depends on how much work it might generate)
□ Four copies of the membership Bulletin (postage alone costs >£5 per year)
□ A £40 discount on tickets to the SJA Sports Awards
□ A £40 discount on tickets to the SJA Sports Journalism Awards
□ A £20 discount on a guest ticket to the SJA Sports Awards
□ A £20 discount on a guest ticket to the SJA Sports Journalism Awards
□ A £5 discount on the cost of attending SJA sporting lunches (we will stage at least six this year).
â–¡ Two Golf Days each year
â–¡ Discounted legal advice through the SJA lawyers
â–¡ Subscription discounts to relevant sporting publications.
â–¡ An SJA press card
â–¡ The right to acquire the internationally recognised AIPS card
â–¡ The right to take part in other SJA activities – such as the recent Ashes Media betting challenge, which gave members £250-worth of free bets – as they arise.
“We recognise that our Awards events are expensive to attend for freelancers and retired journalists,” Northam said, “but the prices we are charging are considerably less than other organisations charge for similar events.
“So we hope that as many members as possible take part – first by voting for their Sportsman, Sportswoman and Team of the Year, and second by buying a ticket and coming along to enjoy what we are sure will be another memorable occasion.”
Click here to read Ian Cole’s summary of the likely contenders for the 61st annual SJA British Sports Awards, sponsored by UK Sport and Sky Bet.
â–¡ UK Sport is the longest standing lead sponsor of the Sports Journalists’ Association, with a partnership that goes back more than a decade. Sky Bet is the SJA’s newest partner, the sponsorship being announced in October 2008.
Both partners support the SJA’s two prestigious annual awards events, including the presentation of a special UK Sport Award for excellence at the SJA’s Annual Sports Awards and the sports betting writer of the year at the SJA’s British Sports Journalism Awards.
The SJA Annual Sports Awards are the longest established of their kind in the United Kingdom, having been first staged in 1949.
First posted September 24
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