I'm really curious about this ticket allocation now. Outside of my family, I also had a bunch of friends and work colleagues who mentioned that they applied - a couple of them only applied because I told them about the ballot and the limited time you could apply in. I don't think any of them have tickets - I'll check at my work on Monday with the last couple I don't know about. But that means there were at least 25 applications from local (and local-ish) people, none of whom got a single ticket. Odd, right? I mean, I know it's total luck of the draw, but I'm starting to wonder whether the public allocation was way, way down this year.
There are a lot of people still in the competition who have northern roots and/or work connections, aren't there? Abbey (from Liverpool), Ashley (from Cheshire, and with Hollyoaks), Natalie (from Burnley, and Corrie), Susanna (BBC Breakfast is filmed in Salford), Mark (from Yorkshire), Dave (from Cumbria). I'm starting to suspect that this may have significantly affected the ticket allocation - and the Beeb have decided to go for near wall-to-wall celeb and family/friend tickets on the ground floor of the ballroom. The other potential issue is that the balcony seating at the Tower has been restricted in some way, again lowering the number of tickets available. There've often been issues with that balcony - if they're carrying out any type of refurbishment or restoration work, there may only be a hundred or so seats available up there. There's less seating than one would think.
