Thousands of fans turned away at door of BBC's new Gladiators show

First day of filming for BBC’s new Gladiators series descends into chaos as thousands of fans are turned away at the doors despite having tickets

• Thousands of fans were turned away from the Utilta Arena in Sheffield when told that the arena was at full capacity 
•  Were YOU turned away at the door? contact [email protected] or [email protected]

Thousands of fans were left disgruntled after they were turned away at the door of BBC’s new Gladiators series after confusion with ticket allocations.

Many fans turned up to the Utilta Arena in Sheffield with some travelling hours only to be left disappointed when they were told that the arena was at full capacity.  

They were told that up to 12,000 free tickets were available although the arena capacity was around 3,000.

Holly Kimberley, 28, from Rotherham, who is a self-proclaimed ‘superfan’ was one of the unfortunate people to be turned away from the arena. 

Ms Kimberley told the BBC:  ‘All of a sudden, at around 12:30pm, they announced that they only had capacity for 3,000 people but 12,000 e-tickets were allocated.

‘As you can imagine, a lot were disappointed and a lot of children and teenagers were crying.’

Disgruntled fans took to Twitter to voice their displeasure at being turned away with many travelling hours to get there

Fans were told that up to 12,000 free tickets were available although the arena capacity was only around 3,000

In with the new: The full cast of the revamped Gladiators (Top row – left to right: Legend, Fire, Bionic, Diamond, Nitro. Second  row – left to right: Electro, Giant, Steel, Apollo, Comet. Third row – left to right: Viper, Athena, Fury, Phantom, Bottom – Left to right: Sabre, Dynamite)

Out with the old: The original cast in 1998 (Back row – left to right: Warrior, Raider, Hunter, Saracen, Trojan. Second row – left to right: Falcon, Rhino, Cobra, Nightshade, Wolf, Panther. Front row – left to right: Amazon, Vogue, Lightning, Jet, Zodiac)

Ticketing company Applause Store said: ‘We apologise for any disappointment caused.

‘Due to an unprecedented demand for tickets for the recording of Gladiators at Utilita Arena Sheffield we reached full capacity sooner than anticipated which meant we sadly couldn’t accommodate everyone that turned up.

‘As clearly stated on all our free tickets and on our website, entrance is on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to venue capacity and entrance is not guaranteed.’

The series originally ran from 1992-2000 on ITV and was hosted by Ulrika Jonsson and John Fashanu.

The new show will be hosted by father and son duo Bradley and Barney Walsh in an 11-part series and will be available to watch later this year on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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