Sam Amico
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Major League Baseball’s decision to pull the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta at first faced a major backlash. Now, it’s facing a lawsuit.
Per Atlanta’s WXIA-TV, the Job Creators Network has filed a $100 million lawsuit in federal court in New York. Part of the suit demands that MLB return the All-Star Game to Cobb County.
The $100 million is for damages to local and state small businesses already impacted by MLB’s decision to remove the midsummer classic, the lawsuit alleges. Many of the businesses are owned by minorities and are still recovering from losses during the pandemic.
The All-Star Game was pulled from Atlanta and moved to Colorado after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed SB202 into law. Democrats have alleged the law is a form of voter suppression, and baseball caved to the political pressure.
“MLB robbed the small businesses of Atlanta – many of them minority-owned – of $100 million, we want the game back where it belongs,” said Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Job Creators Network. “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.”
Previous MLB All-Star Games have generated anywhere from $37 million to $197 million for host cities, per WXIA.
“Small businesses in this community had valid contracts relating to the All-Star Game and other events, the result of two years of planning and all that was ripped away by fear and misinformation spewed by political activists. Many states, including Colorado where the game has been moved to, have similar or more restrictive election laws,” Ortiz said. “This move essentially tells fans of teams in many other cities that they can never again host the All-Star Game; it’s hypocritical, illegal and we won’t stand for it.”
WXIA reported that more than 8,000 hotel reservations for All-Star weekend have been cancelled in Atlanta. Like many other Cobb County businesses, most of those hotels are owned by minorities.
Good. This suit should have been filed weeks ago. When every owner is on the hook for a few million just because Manfred’s dumbass caved to woke nonsense, maybe they will actually wake up.
Good, there needs to be repercussions. I cancelled my annual trip to Cincinnati for a weekend series to see the Reds after that nonsense went down. That’s the only way they will learn, when they see it affect their wallet.
Yep, glad to see this. Glad to see all the lawsuits cropping up due to wokeness.
I have been waiting for this. From Day 1, I wished I was licensed to practice law in Atlanta to file this lawsuit. Good work make dumbasses that follow twitter overreactions pay the price. Add Grimmis, er, Stacey Abrams to the lawsuit as well.
Yep. Include Abrams as well.
If MLB signs contracts with franchises to host these, the businesses had a sort of constructive reliance on the game happening. Maybe Atlanta’s ownership, Liberty media, needs to get in in this, too.