Per Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle, the All-Star Game seems headed back to the Bay.
According to a report by Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Giants are the leading candidate to host the 2028 MLB All-Star Game. Per Slusser’s reporting, the league and MLB Player’s Association appears to be gravitating toward allowing MLB players to participate in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which makes other west coast sites preferable for the midsummer classic. The plan would be to utilize an extended All-Star break to support the tournament.
“The momentum appears to be in favor of allowing Olympic participation, coinciding with a longer All-Star break — and in that case, one league source told the Chronicle, the San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park would be the front-runner for the All-Star Game,” Slusser wrote. “The league and union would want an All-Star location on the West Coast in order to get the sport’s stars to Los Angeles easily rather than having to go cross-country, and San Diego, Seattle and Arizona all have played host to the event more recently than San Francisco, while Sacramento is a minor-league park and is not a consideration.”
The All-Star Game has only been in the Bay Area once over the past 35 years. Candlestick Park was out of favor with the league late in its tenure, last hosting All-Star festivities in 1984, while the A’s stadium situation has kept the All-Star Game out of Oakland since 1987. The Giants were rewarded for opening Oracle Park (originally Pac Bell Park) with hosting the game in 2007, but have not gotten another opportunity since. It seems like the odds are in their favor for a return 21 years later.