Pro-Business Group Files Lawsuit Against MLB Relocate For Pulling All-Star Game From Atlanta

On Monday, a pro-business organization filed a federal lawsuit against Major League Baseball, saying that the league had no authority to MLB Relocate the All-Star Game from Atlanta in protest of Georgia’s restrictive voting legislation.

“Thousands of hard-working average men and women in the Atlanta region” had been depending on earnings from this year’s All-Star Game prior, according to Job Creators Network, located in Addison, Texas: “All of this was taken away in the twinkling of an eye by the defendants.”

Days after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a slew of Republican-backed restrictions, including requiring identification for mail voting and making it illegal to bring food or water to voters in line, MLB announced it was pulling the All-Star Game from Truist Park, the Cobb County home of the Atlanta Braves.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, the MLB Players Association, and union leader Tony Clark were all listed as defendants in the complaint, which was filed in New York City, where MLB headquarters are situated.

The civil lawsuit seeks $100 million in damages as well as a punitive award of up to $1 billion in damages.

The Job Creators Network describes itself as a “nonpartisan group whose aim is to educate Main Street America’s employers and employees in order to defend the 85 million people who rely on small business success.”

The organization claimed it was harmed by the All-Star Game’s relocation because it “had to divert resources to address the grave injury to its Atlanta-area members” and had to “divert staff from its fundraising operations, resulting in decreased earnings.”

To battle MLB, the organization said it was obliged to buy advertising in the New York Times and lease signs in Times Square, totaling “nearly $1.6 million in fees.”

Plaintiff claimed that MLB’s actions caused the citizens of Cobb County to suffer throughout the civil case. Cobb County is not a defendant in this case. On Tuesday, a county spokesman declined to comment on the civil case.

On Tuesday, an MLBPA spokeswoman declined to comment on the complaint, and MLB representatives could not be reached for comment.

The All-Star Game will now be held in Coors Field in Denver on July 13th.

The All-Star Game week also includes a celebrity softball game, the amateur draught, a minor league all-star game, and a home run derby, in addition to the high-profile exhibition game involving elite players from the National and American Leagues.

The new limitations were enacted in the aftermath of two shocking elections that shifted the political balance in Washington, D.C.

Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win the presidential election in Georgia 1992 in November. Biden won by a quarter-point margin, prompting then-President Donald Trump to put pressure on Georgia officials to reject the results.

The Democrats’ Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won runoff elections for the state’s two U.S. Senate seats two months later, giving their party slim control of the chamber.

Former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams is widely recognized for spearheading voter registration drives in minority neighborhoods, which have helped change the state from a solid red to a purple state. According to her, the new limits are a form of voter suppression.