MASN Sports writer Ben Goessling penned an interesting article on Wednesday about the likelihood - or rather, the unlikelihood - that an All-Star game will be played at Nationals Park any time in the years immediately following this one.
Since the game alternates between National League and American League stadiums each year, the midsummer classic won't return to an NL stadium until 2013, when it is widely believed that the Mets will host the game at Citi Field. The league might also deviate from that rotation for a year by allowing the Cubs to host the 2014 All Star Game to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Wrigley Field. Goessling spells it out pretty well from there:
So that would probably mean either 2015 or 2016 is the Nationals' first chance at the All-Star Game. But they're going to have competition; the Marlins want to get the game at their new park, and there are a handful of NL cities that have been waiting longer than the Nationals for the game since opening their new parks (Cincinnati, Philadelphia and San Diego, though the last two cities had All-Star Games in their old parks in the 1990s).
All other ballparks aside, Nationals Park is unlikely to host the All Star Game until the neighborhoods surrounding it improve. That might take a while.