(670 The Score) The Cubs and Wrigley Field will be named the hosts of the 2027 MLB All-Star Game, sources told Score reporter Bruce Levine on Thursday afternoon. An official announcement will come later this summer.
Wrigley Field hasn’t hosted an All-Star Game since 1990. The stadium underwent a years-long renovation that was completed in 2019, and the Cubs had been working in step with that renovation to host another Midsummer Classic.
Security concerns had long been the main impediment to the Cubs and Wrigley Field being awarded another All-Star Game, as MLB was worried about the ballpark being the target of a coordinated attack. Those concerns were allayed in large part by the city and the Cubs recently getting on the same page about the implementation of concrete bollards around the stadium.
An ordinance was introduced Wednesday at a city council meeting to install bollards at a cost of more than $30 million that will be split by the state, the city and the Cubs, according to the Sun-Times. The agreement to install bollards, small posts that can stop dangerous traffic, was the final hurdle to the Cubs hosting the All-Star Game, sources told Levine.
"Active streets around Wrigley Field are very difficult, from a security perspective, from the league’s judgment,” Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney said in an interview on 670 The Score in January 2024.
“After the ugly incident in Paris, the Stade de France issue (in 2015), the league assessed every ballpark for risks for terrorism through an automobile, and we were in one of the bottom rungs there."
In an interview on 670 The Score this past January, Kenney expressed confidence the Cubs would soon be awarded the All-Star Game once they got the safety concerns sorted out.
“The beauty of Wrigley is we play in a neighborhood," Kenney said. "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.”