Padres get 2016 All-Star game; Dodgers on deck?

The San Diego Padres, not the Dodgers, were awarded the 2016 All-Star game on Thursday. However, the Dodgers are increasingly optimistic that the long wait to return the All-Star game to Dodger Stadium is nearing an end.

“We talk about the All-Star game a lot,” Dodgers Chairman Mark Walter said after baseball’s owners concluded their meeting here. “I have reasons to believe L.A. is going to get an All-Star game soon.”

Walter did not elaborate, but he and Dodgers President Stan Kasten have lobbied for the game to return to Dodger Stadium for the first time since 1980.

Since then, the game has been awarded to California clubs seven times, including twice each for the Angels (1989 and 2010), Padres (1992 and 2016) and San Francisco Giants (1984 and 2007).

The Padres and Giants are among the teams to move into new ballparks in recent years. So did the host of last year’s game, the Minnesota Twins, and this year’s game, the Cincinnati Reds.

“We’re getting all these new ballparks built,” Commissioner Bud Selig said. “We made a lot of promises to cities about getting All-Star games.”

Asked whether that would rule out the Dodgers -- Dodger Stadium, the third-oldest in the major leagues, opened in 1962 -- Selig said no. The Dodgers owners have put more than $150 million into stadium renovations, and Selig said the criteria for awarding a game should consider new ballparks as well as those with extensive renovations.

“The Dodgers are deserving of one,” Selig said.

It is unlikely that MLB would play an All-Star game in Southern California in consecutive seasons. The Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals are under consideration for the 2017 game, with the loser likely to compete with the Dodgers for the 2018 nod.