MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that the league "intends to stop awarding the All-Star Game by alternating leagues and will move toward a Super Bowl-type bidding process," according to Jayson Stark of ESPN.com. That process would begin with the '17 game. The new system "would change a practice that has been in place for the last 82 years," in which All-Star Games were generally awarded by alternating NL and AL cities, "barring unusual circumstances." Manfred: "I am looking to be in more of a competitive-bidding, Super Bowl-awarding-type mode, as opposed to (saying), `You know, I think Chicago is a good idea.'" Manfred "did not specify how that bidding would work." However, sources said that rather than choosing cities based on which league they are in, All-Star Game hosts "will be chosen in the future based on the merits of the city and ballpark, and which team and city can produce the best 'All-Star experience.'" But the process "will be complicated, at least initially, by other factors." MLB Commissioner Emeritus Bud Selig last month said, "In getting all these ballparks built, we made a lot of promises to cities about getting All-Star Games." Sources said that MLB "will honor those commitments, meaning that teams such as the Marlins and Nationals, with newer parks that have never hosted an All-Star Game, could jump ahead of more established franchises" (ESPN.com, 2/6). CBSSPORTS.com's Matt Snyder wrote many more NL teams have "good cases to host the game at this point than AL teams." The Nationals, Phillies and Marlins "all have new stadiums that haven't hosted the game." The Dodgers "have the longest drought of not having hosted one." Plus, the two longest AL droughts belong to the Rays and A's, who both "have awful stadium situations." Once Wrigley Field's renovations "are complete, that would be a great pick, too" (CBSSPORTS.com, 2/7).
