With the 2020 edition of the premier Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game being blown off the Los Angeles Dodgers calendar due to the pandemic, the American professional baseball team is all set to host the Midsummer Classic in 2022 at their digs – Dodger Stadium.
Dodger Stadium was due to stage the 2020 edition of the All-Star Game on July 14th, 2020, but as the fatal virus has been pounding the United States since it broke out globally in March 2020, along with Governmental directives prohibiting large gatherings, the league determined last year that the event and its week of surrounding fan activities would be unable to proceed.
2020 was the first year since 1945 that the All-Star Game did not take place. With the MLB team Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park already named as host of the 2021 All-Star Game to be held on July 13th, the Dodgers will host the spectacle in 2022 on July 12th.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League West division.
Dodger Stadium is a baseball park in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened 59 years ago on April 10, 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of US$23 million.
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the ‘Midsummer Classic’, is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by MLB and contested between all-stars from the American League and National League.
Major League Baseball (MLB) is an American professional baseball organization and the oldest of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams play in Major League Baseball: 15 teams in the National League and 15 in the American League.
Stated Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten, “As excited as we were to host 2020’s All-Star Game, we know that it will be worth the wait and that Dodger Stadium and Los Angeles will host a world-class event in 2022.”
Kasten added, “We’d like to thank Commissioner Rob Manfred for reawarding All-Star Week to Los Angeles so quickly, as well as Mayor Eric Garcetti and council member Gil Cedillo for their continued support of this premier sporting event, which will have lasting benefits for our community.”
Noted MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, “Once it became clear we were unable to hold this year’s All-Star festivities, we wanted to award the Dodgers with the next available All-Star Game, which is 2022.”
Added Manfred, “I want to thank the Dodgers organization and the City of Los Angeles for being collaborative partners in the early stages of All-Star preparation and for being patient and understanding in navigating the uncertainty created by the pandemic.”
The 2022 All-Star Game will mark the fourth time in franchise history that the Dodgers will hold the ‘Midsummer Classic’, including the third time in Los Angeles and the second at Dodger Stadium, which last staged the event in 1980.
Previously, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was the site of the second All-Star Game of the 1959 season and in the franchise’s Brooklyn lineage, Ebbets Field hosted the 1949 All-Star Game.
Dodger Stadium, LA’s iconic 60s-era hilltop arena, has completed the US $100 million (£79.9m/€88.4m) rehabilitation project, which was supposed to have been wrapped up ahead of the 2020 All-Star Games, but got delayed as the United States is fighting a bitter battle against COVID-19.
The revamped arena comes armed with:
- A Centerfield Plaza: The new Centerfield Plaza will create a stadium front entry area with a sprawling two acres of unique food offerings by way of new concession options and restaurants serving Dodgers fries, a live music venue, retail locations, a live music venue, and a play area for children who need a break from the stands. The centrepiece will also have more social and standing room areas and greater access for those with special needs. Fans will have a vantage point above a newly-constructed batters eye wall to enjoy the game. The new Centerfield Plaza will pay homage to Dodger history with statues and a permanent place for the ‘Legends of Dodger Baseball’ exhibits;
- Sandy Koufax Statue: A statue of Hall of Fame left-handed pitcher Sandy Koufax will adorn the Centerfield Plaza , the second at Dodger Stadium, following the installation of Jackie Robinson (first African- American to play MLB in the United States) statue in 2017. The Robinson statue will be relocated from the Left Field Reserve to the Plaza;
- Pavilion renovations: New restrooms, enclosed pavilion bars with views into the bullpen, the creation of standing room areas at the top of each pavilion, enhanced ADA seating and just beyond the outfield wall two rows of ‘home run seats’ added to the front of both left and right outfield pavilions. Fans could not have had it better than this with the creation of a barstool experience with the provision of drink rails and an in-seat food and beverage service;
- New elevators and bridges: Four new elevators have been put in place in the Right and Left Field Plazas to help move fans easily to and from the new Centerfield Plaza. Five new bridges will connect the new pavilion standing room decks to the seating bowl area of the stadium for a 360-degree connection around the park’s perimeter; and
- New Sound System: A new surround sound system will replace the speaker tower for a heightened audio experience to fans on all levels of the ballpark thus making room for perfect acoustics.
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