ARLINGTON, Texas — The Braves are now on the clock for MLB’s next All-Star Game with the 2024 edition at Globe Life Field complete. But the upcoming Midsummer Classic carries a sense of expanding ambition from the host club and the weight of broader politics that forced a prior removal of the event from Atlanta.
A group of about 50 people from Georgia—a mix of Braves employees, elected officials, and public safety personnel—traveled to Texas to shadow their counterparts as MLB and the Rangers executed this year’s All-Star Game.
While accounting for best practices, MLB’s All-Star Game is still designed to reflect its host market as much as possible. To that end, Braves executives said they intend to lean heavily into their Southern culture, as well as Atlanta’s extensive experience as a big-event town, having hosted spectacles such as the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff, and March Madness in recent years.
“We’re not intimidated by what needs to happen. Atlanta is a town that has a lot of history with big events like this, and it does them very well,” Braves president and CEO Derek Schiller tells Front Office Sports. “The focus for us is to bring this event to life in our market and make it truly embody Atlanta.”
Among other elements in development for the 2025 All-Star Game:
- The club sees the Georgia voting rights dispute as a nonissue. MLB removed the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the state’s controversial voting rights law and potential boycotts from players in response. Since then, some parts of the state law have been adjusted and broader concerns about voter suppression have not necessarily materialized, while newer rules have kept the issue a prevalent one in Georgia. In late ’23, MLB awarded next year’s All-Star Game to Atlanta as commissioner Rob Manfred lauded Truist Park and adjacent Battery as “gems in terms of facilities.” Georgia remains a critical swing state in this fall’s U.S. presidential election. But Schiller says the club is not dwelling on the subject. “It’s full speed ahead for us,” he says.
- Changes are happening at Truist Park, with more to come. The ballpark is only seven years old, and, with The Battery, remains an industry model for sports-centered, mixed-use development. But the Braves on Wednesday introduced an expanded version of their popular Chop House seating at the ballpark, as well as a new premium area, the Bullpen, featuring breathable mesh seats and television monitors. The changes, arriving for the start of the 2025 season, are just the beginning of a much larger series of upgrades planned at the ballpark. “We can’t stand still,” Schiller says. “It’s always about what else do we have to offer, what else can we be doing?”
- Downtown Atlanta will be an important factor. This year, the All-Star Game events were heavily concentrated in Arlington while the draft was in Fort Worth, leaving Dallas with a much smaller presence. The Braves, conversely, plan to incorporate downtown Atlanta heavily into All-Star week and involve the broader region as much as possible.
- The logo for the 2025 All-Star Game will be unveiled Monday. Marking the formal handoff of the event from one host city to the next, the unveiling will include a parade through the Battery of Braves alumni.
- Braves legends will additionally be a fixture throughout next year’s events. The club’s dynasty of the 1990s and early 2000s produced a bevy of All-Stars and Hall of Famers, many of whom will be central figures in next year’s run of events.
“We, of course, have had a lot of All-Stars. But so many of them also still live right in the [Atlanta] area, which is great,” Schiller says.
