MLB commissioner Bud Selig calls Baltimore a 'very, very viable candidate' for the 2016 All-Star Game

HOUSTON -- Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said before Friday's Civil Rights Game that he sees Baltimore as a leading candidate to host the 2016 All-Star Game.

"Yes, they're certainly a very, very viable candidate," Selig said before the Orioles' game against the Houston Astros. "When you think back, Camden Yards really started this whole ballpark expansion, and I believe that's one of the primary reasons for baseball attendance being at the historic high that it is today."

Selig, who is retiring at the end of this season, will select the locations for the 2016 and 2017 All-Star Games, and said he hopes to continue alternating the game's site between leagues. Because this year's game is in Minnesota and next year's is in Cincinnati, an American League city likely will host the midsummer classic in 2016.

Camden Yards last hosted the All-Star Game in 1993, the year after the ballpark opened.

The only AL teams not to have hosted the game since then are the Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays. Neither the Athletics nor Rays play in stadiums MLB would like to showcase.

"I have great feelings for Baltimore," Selig said. "And I know they have [applied], and I just got done with the '15 All-Star Game, and I know I have to do '16 and '17."

An All-Star Game in Baltimore would give the Orioles a unique centerpiece for their 25th season at Camden Yards and would allow the team to tie season-ticket packages for the next two seasons to tickets to the All-Star Game.

Selig awarded Cincinnati next year's game this January, but there's no timetable on when the 2016 game's site will be announced.

The Orioles first approached MLB about the potential of hosting the game in January 2012, when club owner Peter G. Angelos sent a letter to Selig requesting that Baltimore host the event.