Cincinnati Reds Host 2015 All-Star Game

MLB and Reds Announce 86th All-Star Game at GABP

In the late '90's, baseball commissioner Bud Selig had to sell the All-Star game, baseball's Midsummer Classic, to the franchises and cities.

"I had to beg people to hold the All-Star Game," Selig told a room full of writers and team officials on Wednesday.  "Now the competition is heavy."

When the Reds last hosted the Classic played by baseball's best in 1988, the skills competition was in its infancy.  The city was in the middle of a drought that summer and as luck would have it the home run contest, which is now televised around the world, was canceled by the first rain in three weeks.

Now the All-Star game and the companion Fan Fest is a six-day event on the same level as football's Super Bowl and horse racing's Kentucky Derby.

Thanks to Selig's promotion of baseball in Europe and Asia through the World Baseball Classic, the sport has gained a popularity on the world stage.  Interest has always been strong in Latin America.

The city that hosts the game now gets not only an economic boost in direct spending but a global awareness, the value of which is very difficult to quantify in dollars.

The community of the hosting franchise must take a bigger role in attracting the event.

Dan Lincoln, the president/CEO of the Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau, is familiar with what it means to the economy of the city and the overall attitude of the community.

"We were in the dark for many years," Lincoln said.  "We were told that many times.  Five or Six years ago, we weren't ready to host an event like this. Now, with the success of the Civil Rights Game and the World Choir Games, Cincinnati has shown that we can handle an event like this.  The Banks project is at the right stage.  We can now have global awareness and the city and residents can feel good about themselves."

Lincoln pointed out that the All-Star game in Kansas City last year brought 150,000 people to that city. With a seating capacity of 42,000, three times as many people as those who could possibly attend the game.

"We expect more people to come here for the game in 2015," Lincoln said.  He expects the city to parlay the exposure into more conventions.  "We talk business to business for conventions but it is good to build on the momentum of events like the World Choir Games and the All-Star game.  The top-of-mind awareness will bring more events like this to the city."

Bob Castellini, Cincinnati mayor Mark Mallory and Lincoln have been lobbying Selig for years.

Mallory sent a letter in 2003 to Selig, hoping to get the game here in 2007 or 2008.  Selig responded that it would take more time.  Castellini was affectionately labeled persistent by Selig.

"Bob Castellini is very persistent," Selig said.  "In fact he was a pain in the.... I'll leave it at that."

"I have never been more pleased to be called that," Castellini said.  "It has taken a lot of work from the community.  It will lead the whole city into hospitality center.  It was very hard to keep this quiet."

When Castellini led an ownership group that bought controlling interest in the Reds, he promised that the Reds would be a winning team and that they would host an All-Star Game.  The Reds have made the playoffs in two of the last three seasons and now host Baseball's Classic.

"We are trying to build a sustainable contender," Castellini said.  "That is an every day struggle for our businesspeople to get fans to attend and gives us the money to sign players and our baseball people, our scouts and coaches to build a consistent winner."

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