Seattle will host MLB All-Star Game in 2023

Major League Baseball announced Thursday that Seattle will host its All-Star Game in 2023.

The announcement was made by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred at the Space Needle Thursday afternoon.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan told KUOW that the All-Star Game is great news as the region continues to battle the pandemic.

“I think it shows that we will get through this (pandemic)," Durkan said. "We now have positive things on the horizon. And having the 2023 Major League Baseball All-Star Game here is fantastic.”

“Seattle is still one of the safest places, not only in America but literally in the world — high vaccination rates, low numbers of disease and hospitalization rates," she noted.

This will be the third time the game has been held in Seattle in the franchise's history. According to ESPN Seattle, the city first hosted the All-Star Game in 1979 at the Kingdome. The second time it was held in Seattle was in 2001 at Safeco Field.

Mayor Durkan said the 2023 event will spur the local economy in the meantime. Seattle will look quite different then. The waterfront will likely be open, for starters.

“We’ll have a new arena and a new convention center,” Durkan said. “We also have made the investments in communities of color to make sure we start bridging those disparity gaps. Those things taken together show that we can both fight the pandemic and take the steps we need for a better, more vibrant city in the future.”