Seattle Mariners Chairman of the Board John Stanton during a news conference with Major League Baseball in Seattle’s Pioneer Square
Major League Baseball officially launched All-Star Game Week Wednesday afternoon in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.
“They’re going to get a little taste of what this city is at its best” after a rough few years Seattle is going to be on the world stage with an event that’s expected to pump $50M into the local economy “We estimate over 50 million dollars of what I’ll say (is) good money coming into our local economy” Mayor Bruce Harrell was giddy “What do I mean by that? That’s money that comes from other places.”
The return of the emerald city took three years and a commitment from the community says Beth Knox, President & CEO of the Seattle Sports Commission “People turned out to help clean our neighborhoods, removing graffiti to cleaning up areas to repairing lighting.”
Public Safety is a high priority. So is people moving: public transit is going to be free.
“I told the commissioner 2-1/2 years ago when we first started discussing this” with temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s Mariners chairman John Stanton looked like a visionary “I guaranteed it would be sunny in Seattle in the middle of July and ‘By God’ we’re right.”
The festivities start Friday with a baseball game featuring players from historically black colleges and universities.
“I can’t remember a recent host market” MLB’s Jeremiah Yolkut couldn’t hold back as he highlighted the three days of events also taking place at Seattle Center “That was so adamant about bringing more public events that were free and open to the fans in this market.”
Seattle hasn’t hosted a Major League Baseball All-Star Game since 1979.