Report: Miami Marlins awarded 2017 MLB All-Star game

South Florida is finally getting its chance to host the MLB All-Star game.

The Miami Herald is reporting that the decision to play the 2017 All-Star game at Marlins Park will be made official sometime this week:

Officials are expected to announce within the week that Miami has been awarded the Midsummer Classic for the first time, multiple sources with knowledge of the agreement confirmed Tuesday to the Miami Herald.

Marlins and Major League Baseball officials refused to comment.

It appears that third time’s the charm for the Marlins. They were scheduled to have the game in 2000 but it was moved to Atlanta after Miami dismantled their 1997 World Series championship team. After opening Marlins Park in 2012, the organization expected they would get their opportunity to host the All-Star festivities in 2015, only to see the league choose Cincinnati.

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With the 2016 game set to take place in San Diego, picking Miami will make it three consecutive years that the All-Star game is played in a National League city. This lines up with commisioner Rob Manfred’s vision to move away from alternating between NL and AL parks every year and instead institute a system that would involve a Super Bowl-type bidding process for the right to host the event.

So it may have taken a couple years longer than they had initially thought, but the Marlins and their new stadium will get their weekend to be the center of attention in 2017. This leaves just four active ballparks that have yet to host an All-Star game: Washington’s Nationals Park (with Miami out of the way, the wait in D.C. shouldn’t be much longer), Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field, Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, and New York’s new Yankee Stadium.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr

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