Megan Turner
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Major League Baseball is the latest league to fall out of favor with Republicans after pulling the All-Star Game and draft out of Atlanta in response to Georgia’s new GOP-sponsored voting laws.
Morning Consult’s Alex Silverman reports that Republicans now have a less favorable view than Democrats of all four major U.S. sports leagues.
The article states that MLB’s net favorability rating among Republicans fell 35 percentage points, from 47 points in mid-March to 12 points at the end of last week.
“New data from Morning Consult Brand Intelligence, which tracks consumer attitudes, indicates that MLB’s net favorability rating among Republicans plummeted from 47 percentage points in mid-March to just 12 points at the end of last week, following the league’s decision to relocate its events,” the article reads. “Net favorability is calculated by taking the difference between the share of respondents with a positive opinion of the league and the share with a negative opinion.”
OutKick’s Bobby Burack reported earlier this month that MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark said that players were ready to discuss moving this summer’s MLB All-Star Game and that he had suggested that the GOP-sponsored election reform bill is racist against black people.
“You need an ID to pick up tickets to attend a baseball game. Or to get a beer inside once you’re there,” Clay Travis tweeted in response to the news that the game would be relocated. “But MLB is moving the All-Star game because you need an ID to vote? This is pure insanity.”
Morning Consult reports that, of the four major sports leagues, the MLB had the highest net favorability rating among Republicans prior to the All-Star Game relocation, but that it has now dropped below the NHL and NFL. The NBA is the least favorable among the four, according to data from the article.
The article also states that the league may have more to lose if it falls out of favor with conservative lawmakers. Sportico reports that Republican Sens. Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Josh Hawley of Missouri threatened to strip the league of its long-standing federal antitrust exemption.
This exemption allows the league to fix wages, deny clubs relocation, and pool intellectual property rights — all without worry of antitrust litigation.
“In light of [the MLB’s] stance to undermine election integrity laws,” Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-South Carolina) tweeted hours after MLB’s announcement, “I have instructed my staff to begin drafting legislation to remove Major League Baseball’s federal antitrust exception.”
Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted similar sentiments. “Why does [MLB] still have antitrust immunity?” Lee asked. “It’s time for the federal government to stop granting special privileges to specific, favored corporations—especially those that punish their political opponents.”
Just Republicans? what a dumb headline smfh
Why is it dumb?
My opinion bro
MLB is dead to me….like Big Pussy after Tony Soprano found out he was wearing a Fed wire.
Woke doesn’t care.
Just cancelled my mlb single team season pass. $100 back in my pocket.
Republicans are all lip service and no action. As much as we despise the Democrats, they stick together and take action.
^^ that’s what is frustrating.
The people the left vote in actually are about the action and produce results (disastrous for our country) for their constituents. Meanwhile, half the (R)’s are just a bunch of empty suits who are in D.C. for the gravy train that don’t care about their voters.
For sure. Republicans go on Fox and talk big but nothing ever comes to fruition. As you said, they like being on the DC gravy train. Cowards.
Dems fight hard and dirty. You see who is winning out.
Am I the only one that finds it disturbing that “Independents” still find the woke-tarded NBA favorable????
Politics aside the new NBA isn’t even a great product. Nobody plays defense, the competitive balance sucks as all these dudes team up so that there’s really only 3-4 teams that have a real chance to win, and a lot of the superstars take off regular season games frequently.
The sabernerbs have hurt basketball as much as baseball. If you take 100 3 pointers and make 35% of them you score 105 points. If you take 100 2 pointers and make 45% of them you score 90 points. Even most of the 7 footers camp out behind the line and launch. It’s an unwatchable jump shot contest.
MLB is banned in my house until they start caring about all of their fans. Baseball should only be about the sport PERIOD.
The MLB drop is not surprising. I find the low NFL and negative NBA numbers even more interesting since they show the staying power of the unfavorable opinions. Hard to believe that this data does not impact these sports league’s commissioners and owners. Thanks for reporting this.
MLB? Only sports on my TV’s are hockey, golf, tennis and college sports…
When you politicize everything, everything becomes political. The world is on fire and we are debating pronouns.
sports, concerts were my escape from reality for a few hours. GONE. Right or wrong I like how MJ handled his business.
The NBA is in negative numbers with Republicans – I love it!
What this article fails to mention – which is equally funny and damning of MLB’s hasty woke decision – is that they gained ZERO favorability in the democrat or independent demographics in the same time span. They bent the knee to the side that already represented a minority of their fanbase, gained no traction there, and lost catastrophically among their core.
^^^ This.
That really is a key point that should be mentioned, Common Sense. For a gain of *zero* fans, baseball has alienated many. Other sports leagues and corporations are doing the same thing, and hopefully sooner rather than later, this mistake will become painfully obvious for them.
Rob Manfred needs to voluntarily give up his position as commissioner to a person of color or a transgender immediately. The majority of umpires need to be people of color and transgender. I personally cannot heal until this is done. When a person of color becomes commissioner, I’ll watch again. MLB is a racist league. Manfred is acting like a white supremacist by not stepping down and letting a black person take over.