Apparently, the best way to earn an All-Star Game for your city and stadium is to…name a plaza after the outgoing commissioner. I’m not sure whether the crowning of the Bud Selig Hall of Fame Plaza is the reason for this or not, but the 2016 All-Star Game will be held at Petco Park in San Diego.
San Diego #padres awarded 2016 MLB All-Star Game.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) January 15, 2015
This will be the third All-Star Game in San Diego, but the first at Petco Park. The first two to take place in the city were held at Jack Murphy (now Qualcomm) Stadium. It was generally assumed that Oriole Park at Camden Yards would be hosting the game in 2016, but it’s cynically assumed that the Orioles’ squabbles with MLB over Nationals’ rights fees from MASN led to the decision to award the game elsewhere.
Typically, the All-Star Game has rotated between American and National League parks. The 2015 game will be held at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, and that’s why it was widely assumed an AL city would be chosen to host in 2016. But MLB bucked the trend by going to San Diego for the first time since 1992, which likely puts other NL cities like Washington, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia on the back burner until 2018.
