Major League Baseball has found a new location to host this year’s All-Star game. According to Buster Olney of ESPN, Coors Field in Denver has been chosen to host the midsummer classic. This news comes after MLB opted to move the game out of Atlanta due to new voting laws passed in Georgia last month.
This will be the second time Coors Field will host the All-Star Game. The home of the Colorado Rockies had the game in 1998, and the American League defeated the National League 13-8. Originally, this year’s All-Star game was set to take place at Truist Park, the home of the Atlanta Braves, on July 13. Commissioner Rob Manfred decided to move the game from Atlanta after talking to major league players and the Players Alliance, an organization formed last year after the death of George Floyd. The new voting laws had civil rights groups concerned it had the potential to restrict voting access to people of color.
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“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” Manfred said in a statement on Friday. “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 Braves also released a statement, saying: “This was neither our decision, nor our recommendation and we are saddened that fans will not be able to see the event in our city. The Braves organization will continue to stress the importance of equal voting opportunities and we had hoped our city could use this event as a platform to enhance the discussion.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is standing by his decision to pass the “Election Integrity Act” into law and slammed MLB for moving the All-Star game. “Georgia has 17 days of in-person early voting including two optional Sundays, Colorado has 15,” he said on Fox News this week. “So what I’m being told, they also have a photo ID requirement. So it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”
