Report: MLB to officially announce Wrigley Field as 2027 All-Star Game host

CHICAGO (WGN) — Wrigley Field is now all but guaranteed to host the 2027 MLB All-Star Game, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

Crain’s Justin Laurence reported Wednesday that Major League Baseball is set to officially recognize Wrigley Field as the host of the 2027 MLB All-Star Game on Aug. 1. Sources told Laurence MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and city officials will be in attendance for an event making the announcement official in Chicago.

The Score’s Bruce Levine first reported Wrigley Field would host the 2027 MLB All-Star Game back in late May, with the official announcement to come later this summer.

The biggest roadblock to Wrigley Field playing host to an all-star game was safety concerns. In the days before Levine broke the news, the Chicago Sun-Times reported the City of Chicago, State of Illinois and the Cubs would split a $30 million bill to install “anti-terrorism-rated removable bollards” around the Friendly Confines and widen sidewalks along Addison Street in legislation proposed at City Council.

“The beauty of Wrigley is we play in a neighborhood,” Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney told The Score in January. “That means active streets during the game, 40,000 people inside and a U-Haul truck that could have fertilizer in it rolling right past the gates. That’s no good, and the commissioner made it very clear that’s no good. Those streets need to be closed – not just from the moment the game starts but during the game.

“Progress was made, and then Rahm [Emanuel] left office. Honestly, Mayor [Lori] Lightfoot made a lot of progress with the commissioner and a plan and then was not re-elected [in 2023]. So we picked up the torch with Mayor [Brandon] Johnson, and he’s been making a lot of progress. And I think it’s a very realistic expectation for 2027 based on the conversations I’m aware of that are happening.”

The last time Wrigley Field hosted an All-Star Game was July 10, 1990. For those wondering about the final score of that game, the American League defeated the National League 2-0 behind a 2-RBI double from the Texas Rangers’ Julio Franco.

Before 1990, Wrigley Field hosted two other All-Star Games—one in 1962, and another in 1947.