Major League Baseball is expected to announce Coors Field in Denver as its alternative location to host the 2021 All-Star Game after dropping Atlanta in protest of a new voting law in Georgia.
Sources told multiple news outlets on Monday that the home of the Rockies will host the July 13 Midsummer Classic. An announcement is expected on Tuesday.
The Washington Examiner left a voice message with the MLB’s press office, but did not immediately hear back. Still, local officials quickly celebrated the news.
“We are excited about the possibility of hosting the All Star Game and are awaiting MLB’s decision,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said in a statement.
“Like so many Coloradans, I’m excited and hopeful that Major League Baseball makes the best decision and formally chooses to play the 2021 All-Star Game in Denver,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said. “It would be good for baseball and good for Colorado.”
The news prompted some criticism and mockery too, with people on Twitter noting Colorado’s own voting requirements.
MLB is moving the allstar game to Colorado, which requires photo ID to vote in person, requires signature verification for mail in ballots (which Georgia got rid of), and prevents campaign workers from giving food/water to voters within 100 ft if they’re wearing campaign apparel pic.twitter.com/HwYByz0ye3
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 6, 2021
The league announced on Friday that it would be moving the All-Star Game along with the 2021 draft from Atlanta, where the Braves play, to protest the voting law passed by Georgia’s GOP-led state legislature and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp.
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MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr. said the decision to relocate came after “thoughtful conversations” with clubs, the Players Association, and the Players Alliance. He said moving the events is “the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport.”
The law imposes voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, gives state officials the authority to make changes to county elections boards, authorizes the use of ballot drop boxes (though there will be fewer than there were in 2020), and makes it a crime for politically affiliated persons to approach voters in line within 150 feet of a polling place to give them food and water.
Critics of the law, including Democrats and a wave of companies, claim the changes will disenfranchise minority voters and have said that is the bill’s underlying intent. President Joe Biden even rallied behind the MLB, saying the voting reforms are “Jim Crow on steroids.”
“Like many Georgians, I am disappointed that the MLB is relocating the All-Star game; however, I commend the players, owners and the League commissioner for speaking out,” Stacey Abrams, a Democratic activist and politician who ran a failed campaign for governor of Georgia in 2018. “As I have stated, I respect boycotts, although I don’t want to see Georgia families hurt by lost events and jobs.”
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The American Civil Liberties Union, alongside other groups, sued Georgia, alleging the law “placed burdensome, unjustified, and unnecessary restrictions on voters, particularly voters of color and other historically disenfranchised communities.”
Kemp has called the MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta an example of “cancel culture,” adding that Republicans in the state are “not backing down.”
Former President Donald Trump has called for a baseball boycott while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declined to throw the first pitch at the Texas Ranger’s home opener on Monday, citing the All-Star Game decision.
