Group Sues MLB Over Decision To Move All-Star Game To Denver

DENVER, CO — A Texas-based organization filed a lawsuit Monday against Major League Baseball in an attempt to move the All-Star Game back to Atlanta.

MLB relocated the game over changes to Georgia's voting laws, signed into law March 25, which include new limits on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.

The Job Creators Network filed the lawsuit against MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and the association's Executive Director Tony Clark.

“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, in a statement.

“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.”

The suit "demands the immediate return" of the game to Atlanta "or that defendants pay $100 million in damages to local and state small businesses," the Job Creators Network said in a news release issued Monday.

Manfred made the decision to move the All-Star events and the amateur draft from Atlanta after discussions with individual players and the Players Alliance, an organization of Black players formed after the death of George Floyd last year.

As of Tuesday afternoon, MLB had not issued a response to the lawsuit.

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Coors Field last hosted the All-Star Game in 1998, the fourth season for the stadium and sixth for the Rockies franchise.

"We are excited to host this year's All-Star festivities at Coors Field," said Greg Feasel, Rockies Chief Operating Officer, in a statement after the relocation was first announced in early April.

"We are confident that our organization along with the city, state, VISIT DENVER and the Denver Sports Commission are capable of putting on this premier event in a relatively quick time frame because of the preparations that had already been done.

"Summer in Colorado is something everyone in the country should experience, and we embrace this opportunity to show off our beautiful ballpark and everything our city, state and region have to offer."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.