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Photo by Rachel Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER An All-Star Game in the District would undoubtedly be a major event. |
USA Today baseball writer Bob Nightengale posted on Twitter this evening that Bud Selig will announce next week that Kansas City will host the 2012 midsummer classic. Nightengale added that future All-Star games will be hosted by the Mets (2013), Twins (2014) and Nationals (2015), though Selig won't make those announcements official until two years before each event takes place.
Team president Stan Kasten said he had not seen the report -- "Don't know anything about it," he wrote in an email -- but it's no secret the Nationals have expressed interest in bringing the game to Washington since opening Nationals Park in 2008.
Major League Baseball has considered the District a strong candidate to host the All-Star Game, though the sport figured to award the event first to other NL cities that recently opened new ballparks (Philadelphia, Cincinnati, San Diego) while also waiting for the neighborhood around Nationals Park to blossom.
6 comments:
Read this report this morning in the Post and nearly spilled my coffee. Cool. And about time! [No rant hear about whether Bud yet believes baseball belongs in the Nation's Capitol from me, but I'm up for one on the Commish.] And while I'm unclear why CitiField and Target Field are in line in front of us, I would concur that developers (including the Lerners) and the City need to get moving on creating some "night life" around the ballpark. That excuse for a beer garden outside of the center field gate (which I certainly can't take my teenager daughter and her friends into) and Five Guys as the quality dining spot in the neighborhood don't cut it now, never mind for a future All-Star game.
Wow, you get Strasburg and draft Bryce Harper and all of sudden this team is getting respect.
Carl in 309, if you went to the All Star game 2 years ago at old Yankee Stadium you would have seen that nothing was done around Yankee Stadium.
All festivities were in Manhattan as well as the All Star FanFest. Same in other All Star cities. Not as big of a deal with the Subway system.
The business about the neighborhood blossoming is the bunk.
What's there to do after the game at Flushing Meadow besides board your train and get out of there? From Nats Park you can walk to Barracks Row.
I'll not sit still for the "neighborhood" excuse if MLB is dumb enough to try to trot it out.
Hendo - It is probably a little more pertinent to a Super Bowl city to have closeby restaurants and hotels as they tend to do more around the Stadium as the focal point, but it still doesn't seem to be a reason not to choose a city.
I finally discovered Barracks Row this week for the first time. The places were packed. Great to see and hope the smart development can inch closer and closer to the stadium area.
The Strasburg debut game has shown what the SE and SW could get in traffic on a daily basis when 40,000 is a regular draw.
I think at that point like around Verion center, the restaurants and bars will open up in the stadium area like Barracks Row.
2015 is the same year the Red Sox come back to Nats Park too.
That will be a huge year for Season Ticket sales to guarantee All Star seats.
With Bryce Harper hopefully being a true MLB stud and debuting in June 2013 or before then I would expect the Nats to really be a perennial winner based on all the young pitchers they have tied up through 2013 and beyond and guys like BHarper.
When you throw out years like 2015, you can already forsee that there is a possible Free Agent date for Strasburg after the 2016 season so enjoy the good times as baseball in Washington appears to be the place to be!
Anonymous8-I think your getting a little ahead of yourself with the 40,000 on a regular basis. Strasburg has pitched one, yes one game. Bryce Harper is atleast two years away from playing. Also in baseball, its the team thats the draw NOT the individuals. When the Rangers featured Pudge, Juan Gonzo, Aroid, and Raffy Palmerio, they did not do so great at the ballpark, why? because they had no pitching and didn't win.
But, i'll say for the sake of argument, Stras turns into a great pitcher and they regularly sell out his outings as people want to see him. B Harp does turn out to be the Lebron James of Baseball and ditto with him. Still you need to fill the other 4 days up. I'm not saying Stras or B Harp won't be great, but it's premature to make conclusions - they can both get injured and/or turn out to be medicore ballplayers. Baseball is probably the least predictable of the four major North American sports. And yes, once the Nats are a regular NL East contender people will want to see them, just the same way the Caps have sold every game for the past year and a half. In addition, who knows where R Zimm will be at that point, maybe Aroid retires and the Yankees decide to offer him big $$$ or maybe he turns out to be the next Hank Blalock. I think your getting a little ahead of yourself. But then again its nice to dream.
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