Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium is to host the Major League Baseball All-Star Game for the first time in 40 years.
The 56,000-seat venue, which serves as the home of MLB team the Los Angeles Dodgers, will host the showpiece event in 2020, having last done so in 1980.
The Dodgers have hosted the All-Star Game four times in total, but only once has the event been held at Dodger Stadium. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliesum hosted in 1959 and Ebbets Field in New York was the venue in 1949, when the team was known as the Brooklyn Dodgers.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said: “Major League Baseball is proud to bring the All-Star Game to Los Angeles and fans of the Dodgers in 2020. As last year’s World Series demonstrated, Dodger Stadium remains one of our game’s classic ballparks, and it will be a perfect venue to showcase the very best of the National Pastime.
“I congratulate the Dodgers organisation and the leaders of Los Angeles on putting together an outstanding bid to host the All-Star festivities.”
Dodger Stadium has been awarded the event with the stadium having benefited from a range of improvements in recent years. Upgrades include new entrance plazas, tiered seating, bar areas, video screens and a sound system.
Dodgers president and chief executive Stan Kasten added: “We’ve made no secret that bringing an All-Star Game back to Los Angeles was a priority for our ownership group, and we couldn’t be more excited for Dodger fans and to showcase Dodger Stadium and Los Angeles to a worldwide audience in 2020.
“We’d like to thank commissioner Rob Manfred, Mayor Eric Garcetti and councilmember Gil Cedillo for their efforts to secure this premier sporting event for our community, which will benefit from baseball’s legacy youth programmes for years to come.”
The 2017 All-Star Game took place at Marlins Park in Miami, Florida, with Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. to host this year’s event on July 17. Before Dodger Stadium hosts in 2020, the game will be held at Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians, in 2019.
Image: Frederick Dennstedt
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