Already has (well, deflated a little anyway). Football audience is down and Sky is having to cut back on the number of sports it's covering next year as a result.

Makes you wonder dosen't it!

He has no personality at all and hits a ball with a racket. Wow!

The winner should have been Nick Skelton. Having to train your horse and yourself to both be fit and well trained and also recovering from a broken neck and the grand age of 58 is most worthy of the title. No doubt at that age Murray will have retired many years before that.

And did you vote to that end? Maybe encourage some friends and family to vote?

Andy Murray won because he got more votes (independently verified) than any other individual. Exactly the same process by which Ore won Strictly the previous night. It's not rocket science!

There's no doubting your logic and you've definitely got me wondering.

Tennis players obviously retire due to laziness, and not because they compete in a physically demanding and competitive sport, and so can't compete once they are no longer in their physical prime. And tennis players never get injured. I'm sure Murray just pretended to snap the tendons in his wrist and to need back surgery because he fancied a few months off to play video games.

Considering the money available, it is remarkable that more middle-aged people aren't entering Wimbledon considering how easy it is, but it is very generous of them to give the younger players a chance. Maybe they should give 57 year old John McEnroe a special award for stepping aside?

Meanwhile those gymnasts are terrible. Loads of them think that they are entitled to retire in their twenties. They are clearly lacking substance, and being world champions in their teens is no excuse. It's apparent that the true giants of British sport are all doing dressage and lawn bowls.

Is Horse riding a sport ? c'mon, it's not really, like F1 it's a load of posh folk having fun.

Nice one again Muzza, his utter indifference and his willingless to expend zero energy and pull out absolutely no stops to attend in person endears him to me all the more.
The BBC must hate him.

Joe Calzaghe in 2007? Freddie Flintoff in 2005?

I quite enjoy watching a bit of sport in the same way that I quite enjoy the occasional movie.
But those masturbatory love-ins are just beyond satire.

That's a fair point.

The 2005 Ashes was on terrestrial TV, as were some of Calzage's 2006/7 fights.

And don't even get me started on that Michael Phelps. He's only 31 and has decided to retire already! The lazy sod!

Surely he should carry on winning gold medals in the doggy paddle into his late 50's before he deserves any sort of award for it!

(Alternatively perhaps the fact that you can win a gold medal in a "sport" aged 58 should make us all question whether it should really be classed as a sport at all rather than just an enjoyable hobby for the upper classes...)

So true

Sue Barker loves Murray I am sure.

Bet she is well annoyed a tennis player dominates the award now she has left.

It's probably for the best. It saves her having to pretend to be neutral.

Well he managed easily the best acceptance speech of the night.

Southgate needs a slap for walking out on his own, leaving denice Lewis several.steps behind.

Well done, nobody has ever said that before.

The seethe that Murray attracts from Little Englanders is beautiful.

Didn't she get more Golds than him and like him completely dominated her events.

He only did a couple of minutes work for his medals, she did more than that.

I am sure there will be people from other sports who would say that some of the other names deserve more time. I thought actually they spent too much time on Ali anyway.

Looking at the voting numbers, Murray seems to get a big block vote and was well ahead of second and third. Some very deserving people had only 10% or 1% or his vote.

Good to see that two of the top three were from Yorkshire.

Formula 1 is not a good one to compare with, people sitting in mobile advertising hoardings driving around in circles!

I didn't notice that but I did notice Prince William leaving Jessica Ennis-Hill to do all the talking by herself during the main award.

I can't believe anyone thinks that bloke actually has a personality at all... he appears to have no flourish at all....standing prancing at the end of a race doesn't make you a personality or give you one....

bigger farce is an American gymnast wins some medals at one Olympics and they give her an award...does anyone here know what she sounds like or how she is a "personality"?
no.....

bolt won before ...still bizarrely but the BBC seem to fawn over him mistakenly lauding him that the British public adore him...no they don't...he's Jamaican why the F would British people love him...more BBC drivel...

the real travesty is that a real actual character and personality never ever has got overseas award and that is multiple world champion Valentino Rossi...now that is a sporting personality.... and not in the same vein but youngest ever world champion and triple champ at 22 Marc Marquez.....
don't think it's a sport? don't really care what anyone thinks...these guys are, extremely fit, some of the toughest out there (Marc came off in practice and dislocated shoulder this year ..popped it back in one way back to pits on the scooter....out again next session. ....) they also take the most risks at 200mph plus...

I refuse to watch this crock of nonsense due to the overblown expense and drivel and lack of respect for motorsport....the fact it had a prancing pony club singer on it gave me double reason not to watch it....

Yes. She was one of the biggest stars of the whole games, and it was a very well deserved award.


Soldiers in combat situations take bigger risks. What's your point? And if you can compete at the top level with a dislocated shoulder, then it only proves that having a functioning shoulder isn't required for the 'sport'. I don't think you'd win many gymnastics golds with a dislocated shoulder.

Surely It's Little Englanders that vote him in ?

my point is it's one of the toughest most risky sports in the world and Rossi widely acknowledged as the biggest personality in that sport....the greatest of all time with 9 world titles...his antics and stunts are well known and he is a personality

by the way I wasn't aware combat soldiers were up for sporting awards

you've clearly never ridden a motorcycle on track at all...certainly not at the speeds and forces these guys do... a shoulder is rather necessary...
as are fingers and wrists and they frequently ride with those injuries and pain killing injections....

you answered me anyway...she won one games...the likes of Rossi has won at world level 9 times...
Marquez 3 world titles before 22 at top level and 2 more in the lower classes too... he's the man if Christian Bale could be anyone at all he would be...

as i said I couldn't care less if you disagree... the BBC show is past its sell by and a crock of...

Doing something dangerous doesn't prove your sporting prowess, and the Sports Personality of the Year award is for achievements this year. However, Biles won her first world championships in 2013.

And I'd like to see anyone try these moves with a recently dislocated shoulder.

https://youtu.be/9HO0zsigh30

It's simply impossible to compete at the top level of gymnastics, or tennis, or any of the other very physically demanding sports if you dislocated your shoulder the previous day. That doesn't make those athletes less tough, they simply compete in the kind of elite sport that doesn't tolerate any dip in strength.