The 2021 MLB All-Star Game is officially on the move, as the league just took the game away from Atlanta over recent changes to Georgia voting laws.
The matter is speculative no longer- Atlanta just lost the 2021 MLB All-Star game.
In a move that was only surprising in its swiftness, MLB announced Friday that the All-Star Game and MLB Draft were both being pulled effective immediately. The reason? Recent changes to voting laws in the State of Georgia.
And that’s not being hidden either. The league’s statement makes clear that was the motive behind the move. It’s a rare case of the league getting out of ahead of what was fast becoming a public relations disaster, as calls for a move ranged from the MLBPA president to the United States president. With plenty of baseball players and pundits in between.
Even in this space, just a week ago, we were predicting a move or a boycott. One week later, thoughts can just turn to the question of where the All-Star Game will now be played instead.
Unfortunately, it’s a question that isn’t a simple matter of throwing a dart at a map of the twenty-nine other MLB cities. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal wrote a great piece earlier this week about some of those challenges, but the long and short of it is Georgia is not the only state potentially looking at voting law changes.
Dodger Stadium would have been an obvious choice, as that was to be the site of last year’s MLB All-Star Game, before that game was cancelled on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the city has already been awarded the 2022 game as recompense, and is probably content to keep what should be a fully attended, non-Covid influenced game on the books.
Another good candidate could be Miller Park, as Milwaukee is the other MLB city with strong Hank Aaron ties. Honoring Aaron’s legacy was to be a big part of the Atlanta ceremonies, something that will undoubtedly be celebrated wherever the game is played, but would have been more particularly impactful coming in front of Braves fans.
The only hitch there is Wisconsin is one of those states also looking at making election law changes. So that could be a non starter as well. Nashville, Tennessee would have been a good outside the box option, since they desire an MLB franchise. But same perception problem.
In any event, some city is getting a week-long celebration of baseball. There will definitely be an MLB All-Star Game in 2021. It just won’t be in Atlanta.