2009 All-Star game to be at GABP?

[savafan]

I've been hearing this rumor a lot today. Can anyone with inside connections confirm this?

[dabvu2498]

Don't they alternate league cities hosting? That would put the ASG in the NL in 06, 08, 10, 12, etc. Not 09. Unless we're switching leagues!!!

[savafan]

Don't they alternate league cities hosting? That would put the ASG in the NL in 06, 08, 10, 12, etc. Not 09. Unless we're switching leagues!!!

Well, next year is at San Francisco...?

[dabvu2498]

Well, next year is at San Francisco...?

I'm 2 years behind.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...1-future_x.htm

[goreds2]

I would say Cincy will be in 2011.

Cincy is a great baseball town as we know but it is hard to believe a great baseball city such as St. Louis has not had an All Star Game since 1966.

[Heath]

I would say Cincy will be in 2011.

Cincy is a great baseball town as we know but it is hard to believe a great baseball city such as St. Louis has not had an All Star Game since 1966.

Nope, the two new parks in New York will be ready by then and will put Cincinnati even further back. Then there is Philadelphia. Then Washington's new park. Then Florida's when that gets built.

I would think anything earlier than 2015 would be a bonus.

[Joseph]

I think they scrapped the alternating idea, but I've been hearing New Busch is the front runner now.

I would think GABP would be 'due' before St Louis, but I guess the little 'nati on the river doesn't carry as much weight as the big bad Redbirds under the Arch.

[Reds Fanatic]

Here is an article from the Enquirer today about the Reds trying to get the All Star Game.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...607110363/1071

The Cincinnati Reds plan to join the hunt to host an All-Star game.

Reds chief operating officer John Allen said the team is putting out feelers for a 2009 bid. Allen is in Pittsburgh this week for the All-Star break and is visiting informally with Major League Baseball officials to gauge their interest in Cincinnati.

Baseball likes to showcase its new ballparks, which is good and bad for Cincinnati. It's good because Great American Ball Park opened in 2003. It's bad because several other National League teams have opened, or are preparing to open, new parks.


Among those National League teams are the St. Louis Cardinals, which opened a new Busch Stadium this season.

The Cardinals have not hosted an All-Star game since 1966 and are thought to be in a strong position to host the 2009 contest.

If St. Louis prevails in 2009, the Reds would focus their attention on the 2011 game.

Baseball tries to alternate between National League and American League parks, but next year's game will be in San Francisco, an NL city.

The Reds last hosted the game in 1988, the city's bicentennial year, at Riverfront Stadium.

Formal bids go through baseball commissioner Bud Selig's office. Selig determines who gets the game. He is expected to make some general comments today about possible future sites when he speaks to the Baseball Writers' Association of America at its annual luncheon.

Selig told USA Today last year that in picking the host city, "I try to do something that's good for the sport. My objective is to not only help the club, but the sport."

The amount of lead time necessary to assemble a successful bid varies. Pittsburgh began its process for this year's game "four or five years ago," said Marla Miller, Major League Baseball's senior vice president for special events.

A new stadium is not the only factor in a successful bid. Cities also must be able to accommodate hordes of tourists during the five-day All-Star game extravaganza known as Fan Fest.

Pittsburgh officials said All-Star activities will bring a combined attendance of 250,000 people and an estimated economic impact to the region of $52.3 million.

That city has devoted every inch of its convention center - 400,000 square feet - to Fan Fest this week.

Allen said Cincinnati's newly expanded Duke Energy Center would be "a huge plus," should the city make a bid.

At 300,000 square feet, the center is big enough to hold the All-Star crowds, Ric Booth, the center's general manager, said.

"It would be a tight fit, but it could be done," Booth said.

Booth said the center's location is an asset.

"We're close to the hotels and not that far from the ballpark. It's all a plus. This isn't just about sports; it's about the city. It's a happening. It puts you on the map; it shows the country, 'We can do this thing.' All eyes are on you. We'd love to be a part of bringing the All-Star game here. It's a natural for this city."

If St. Louis is awarded the 2009 game, the Reds will have plenty of competition in 2011. The New York Mets and Washington Nationals will have opened new parks by then. The Arizona Diamondbacks, who opened Chase Field in 1998, also have yet to host.

Since the Toronto Blue Jays opened Sky Dome in 1989, the typical waiting period to get an All-Star Game has been one to five years, except for Chicago's new Comiskey Park, which had to wait 12 years.

If Cincinnati hosts in 2011, its ballpark will have waited eight years.

Allen said that while the Reds will take the lead in attracting the All-Star Game to Cincinnati, the entire city must be on board.

"It (attracting the event) is a joint effort," Allen said. "The Reds would be an integral part of (the bid process), but the whole community would be involved. It's a major undertaking."

[macro]

Didn't Pittsburgh have it in 1994? Why did they get two in twelve years?

[savafan]

Didn't Pittsburgh have it in 1994? Why did they get two in twelve years?

Yes they did. Good question, especially for a team that has been so pathetic.

[goreds2]

Didn't Pittsburgh have it in 1994? Why did they get two in twelve years?

In 1994, MLB probably did not realize all these new ballparks would be coming in.

Twelve years is a short gap though.

[vaticanplum]

Didn't Pittsburgh have it in 1994? Why did they get two in twelve years?

Because it is the most beautiful stadium in the world!

I actually wonder if the patheticness of a team doesn't sometimes work in its favor. The powers that be might want to give some good attention to the park in effort to bring in people if the team itself can't do it. Pittsburgh is actually a pretty well-attended stadium I think, but even so.

And then there might just be money changing hands. Or even heavy lobbying -- I've wondered why GABP isn't thrown around more as a possibility, but then it strikes me that I haven't really heard of the front office pushing too hard for it. The city itself doesn't seem to have built up the area around the ballpark as much as would be necessary to host a bang-up All-Star weekend.

[Heath]

Because it is the most beautiful stadium in the world!

I actually wonder if the patheticness of a team doesn't sometimes work in its favor. The powers that be might want to give some good attention to the park in effort to bring in people if the team itself can't do it. Pittsburgh is actually a pretty well-attended stadium I think, but even so.

And then there might just be money changing hands. Or even heavy lobbying -- I've wondered why GABP isn't thrown around more as a possibility, but then it strikes me that I haven't really heard of the front office pushing too hard for it. The city itself doesn't seem to have built up the area around the ballpark as much as would be necessary to host a bang-up All-Star weekend.

Only time PNC Park was sold out is tonight. Ironically enough, it might rain.

Vatican's right - McClatchy's crying poor.

[Jpup]

I don't doubt that Bob Castellini will do whatever it takes to get it done within a reasonable time frame.

[Roy Tucker]

On WLW this AM, they said the AS game would be at the GABP when the Banks project is complete, i.e. never.

I ruefully and bitterly laughed. Paul Daugherty did an excellent column a couple weeks back about how the Reds and the city screwed the pooch so badly with not putting GABP at Broadway Commons.

I was going to post it but figured it would do nothing but raise my blood pressure.