All four major sports in North America celebrate All-Star games each season, as long as the season is played, and marketing these games can be extremely easy to do. Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NHL all play mid-season All-Star games while the NFL plays its All-Star game following the Super Bowl and it takes place in the state of Hawaii each year. All of the other three sports play their All-Star games in different locations each season to generate as much interest in the sport in every city that hosts the game.

The best way that all four sports have marketed their All-Star games is by allowing the fans the opportunity to vote for which players should participate in each game. Voting periods last a variety of different lengths and can be done at the league’s stadiums on paper ballots or on the Internet on individual team’s sites or the league’s site. The NHL and the NBA have already played their All-Star games for this season and the NFL is preparing for a summer of training camps while baseball is in full swing. This means that the MLB All-Star game has yet to be played.

The 2009 game will be held in St. Louis, the home of the Cardinals, and is scheduled for July 14, 2009. Aside from allowing fans of the sport to vote which players should participate in the game, the league has created a website solely for fan voting and another website that solely deals with the All-Star game itself and all of the events that surround the handful of days set aside on the schedule for the celebration of the game’s best players.

The league also places All-Star ads all over its team’s websites, within radio and television broadcasts of games, and all across the Internet on MLB blogs and other websites. The three other leagues pretty much do the same things when it comes to marketing their sport’s All-Star game.