A conservative business group is suing Major League Baseball over its decision to move the 2021 All-Star Game to Denver, alleging the league conspired with the players’ union to intimidate the state government of Georgia over a new voting law and to harm Georgia businesses.
The Job Creators Network filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court Monday, asking for Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association to pay $100 million to make up for lost business revenues in Georgia. It also seeks $1 billion in punitive damages for their “unprecedented cruelty and hostility” toward Georgia.
“MLB robbed the small businesses of Atlanta — many of them minority-owned — of $100 million,” Job Creators Network CEO Alfredo Ortiz said in a news release. “We want the game back where it belongs.” The organization supports small businesses, including in Colorado and Georgia, and was started in part by the CEO of Home Depot, which is based in Atlanta.
In early April, MLB announced the game will be played in Denver rather than Atlanta in response to Georgia’s new voting law that Republicans said will improve election integrity and Democrats consider to be voter suppression. Monday’s lawsuit would force MLB to play the July 13 game in Atlanta, and host other All-Star activities there.
Colorado officials have said there could be an economic impact of more than $100 million if the game is held here.
Marc Edelman, a professor of sports law at City University of New York, said the lawsuit is unlikely to succeed and is “arguably frivolous.” He said MLB can legally place its All-Star Game where it chooses, even for political reasons, and Georgia business owners are not entitled to compensation because they were not directly promised anything by MLB.
“Overall, this seems to be a number of very far-fetched claims led by an organization that is unhappy that Major League Baseball moved its All-Star Game and simple unhappiness doesn’t amount to a legal claim. In a convoluted way, they have raised multiple incredibly unlikely arguments,” Edelman said.
Neither MLB nor the MLBPA responded to requests for comment Tuesday. Gov. Jared Polis’s office declined to comment, and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
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June 02, 2021 at 01:03AM
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Conservative group sues to stop Denver from hosting MLB All-Star Game - The Denver Post
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