Atlanta (USA), (EFE). – The commissioner of the Great Leagues, Rob Manfred, has announced last night that the Game of the Stars of the 2021 will be in the stage of the Braves of Atlanta, the SunTrust Park.
Although the stadium was already inaugurated in 2017, Commissioner Manfred said that the four-year wait for an event such as the “Summer Classic” will allow Atlanta and the Braves to have a better projection abroad.
Manfred, who attended the game that the Braves played last night against the Washington Nationals, was excited by all that the city of Atlanta can offer at all levels.
“The facilities here, including the SunTrust stadium and the Battery, are the best of baseball,” Manfred said. “They have managed to adapt all the current advances and their use is exemplary.”
The Braves are lessors of restaurants, bars, a place for concerts, a hotel, apartments and office buildings in the development of multiple uses known as Battery.
Manfred was joined by some of the most prominent ex-players of the Braves, a group that included Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Chipper Jones, Phil Niekro, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms also attended the announcement.
The All-Star Game will join a series of major sporting events recently held in Atlanta, including the MLS Cup, the college football championship game and this year’s Super Bowl.
The Final Four of the 2020 college basketball will also be held in Atlanta.
“The Super Bowl received praise,” said Braves driver Brian Snitker. “I think this (the All-Star Game) will receive them too, I mean, it’s just an amazing place to have the best of the sport playing here.”
It will be the third All-Star Game to be played in Atlanta. The 1972 edition was held in the park better known as the Fulton-Atlanta County Stadium.
The 2000 duel was held at Turner Field, the former Olympic stadium of the 1996 Summer Games that was home to the Braves between 1997 and 2016.
Manfred acknowledged that Atlanta has become one of the cities with the greatest projection of growth in the country and the sport national pastime could not be alien to that reality.
“It is time for us to return,” said Manfred. “Our sport deserves a stage like Atlanta and we will be prepared so that its world exposition is the best”.
Manfred also praised the way the Braves have worked in rebuilding the team with young values that make the team much more competitive and winning each day. EFE
