Major League Baseball Sued For Shifting All-Star Game Out Of Georgia

The defendants will undoubtedly assert that they are private entities that can do as they wish, including moving an All-Star Game.

A conservative advocacy group called Job Creators Network, supported by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, has filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association in the Southern District of New York after MLB decided to move its annual All-Star Game out of Georgia based on that state’s adoption of a new voter law. The complaint states that MLB’s decision has removed an opportunity for the Atlanta region to earn approximately $100 million from the game and its surrounding festivities (through hotel reservations, dining, etc.) and that people in the area have consequentially been deprived of their civil rights. Requested relief includes an injunction that would immediately restore the 2021 All-Star Game to Atlanta as well as more than $100 million in compensatory damages and a claim for $1 billion in punitive damages.

On April 2, MLB issued a statement regarding the 2021 All-Star Game, with Commissioner Rob Manfred indicating that he decided the best way to demonstrate the values of baseball was by relocating the All-Star Game and MLB Draft.

“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” read the statement. “In 2020, MLB became the first professional sports league to join the non-partisan Civic Alliance to help build a future in which everyone participates in shaping the United States. We proudly used our platform to encourage baseball fans and communities throughout our country to perform their civic duty and actively participate in the voting process. Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support.”

The statement was issued in response to Georgia’s SB 202, which is a 98-page law that makes changes to absentee voting, including a limitation on the number of drop-off boxes, reduction in time that voters can request a mail-in ballot before an election, requiring that voters complete applications for absentee voting much sooner than under the prior law, and mandating that voters provide either a driver’s license number, state ID number, or copy of an acceptable voter ID for identification purposes.

Job Creators Network is suing MLB based on causes of action for violation of The Ku Klux Klan Act, 42 U.S. Code § 1983, tortious interference with contract, civil conspiracy, and tortious interference with business relationships. It alleges that MLB and the MLBPA plotted and coordinated their conspiracy to deprive Georgia citizens of their civil rights and intended to injure those residents and businesses in and around Atlanta. A key to the litigation will be the plaintiff’s effort to classify MLB as a state actor based on a history of teams receiving state and local financing for stadiums as well as MLB’s ongoing antitrust exemption. The defendants will undoubtedly assert that they are private entities that can do as they wish, including moving an All-Star Game because they do not agree with the policies of the state in which the game was scheduled to be played.


Darren Heitner is the founder of Heitner Legal. He is the author of How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, published by the American Bar Association, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. You can reach him by email at heitner@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @DarrenHeitner.

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