Cubs pushing to host All-Star Game at Wrigley in 2020

After finally hosting a World Series contest again, an All-Star Game could be the next goal for Wrigley Field.

With the iconic ballpark preparing for a host of changes in the coming seasons, Chicago Cubs management is hopeful MLB will grant the stadium the right to host the Midsummer Classic in 2020, the same year current construction on the ballpark is expected to be completed.

‘"The city wants it; we want it," Crane Kenney, the team's president of baseball operations, said Saturday at the Cubs Convention, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. "But we've got to convince (commissioner Rob) Manfred that we've earned it. It's a little bit of politics. He has a very open mind to Wrigley getting the All-Star Game at some point, and we're working very closely with the city."

According to Kenney, the primary concern with hosting the event at Wrigley is security, though the Cubs have lobbied the city of Chicago to allow them to close surrounding streets during game days. Kenney also referenced the recent terror attack on a Christmas market in Berlin as a point for heightened security around the ballpark.

"Put it this way: The conversations have gotten real. The theoretical risk of maybe three or four years ago has become very practical," Kenney said, according to Wittenmyer. "You look at what happened in Berlin, and you look at what happened right after that attack, which was that the Christmas market in Chicago all of a sudden (had) barriers."

Wrigley Field last hosted the All-Star Game in 1990.