A pro-business group is suing Major League Baseball (MLB) for moving its All-Star Game out of Atlanta after the passing of Georgia’s controversial voting law.
The Job Creators Network shared in a statement that it filed a lawsuit against the league in a New York federal court, arguing the league should pay $100 million in damages to local businesses in Georgia that are still recovering from the pandemic.
JCN added that most of the businesses affected by the move are minority-owned as well, saying this has done harm to communities of Atlanta and Cobb County. Cobb County CFO William Volckmann said it would have received a “robust return” for hosting this year’s All-Star game, according to the statement.
“MLB robbed the small businesses of Atlanta – many of them minority-owned – of $100 million, we want the game back where it belongs,” JCN CEO and President Alfredo Ortiz said in the statement. “This was a knee-jerk, hypocritical and illegal reaction to misinformation about Georgia’s new voting law which includes Voter-ID. Major League Baseball itself requests ID at will-call ticket windows at Yankee Stadium in New York, Busch Stadium in St. Louis and at ballparks all across the country.”
MLB moved its annual All-Star game from the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park to the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field in Denver after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a new election bill into law in April, sparking backlash from critics who called it the new Jim Crow.
Georgia voted in November for a Democratic president for the first time in decades, followed by January runoff election victories by Sens. Jon Ossoff (D) and Raphael Warnock (D).
The MLB All-Star game will be played in Denver on July 13.
The Hill has reached out to MLB for a comment.