The Facts on JCN v. , MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball Players Association and Executive Director .

JCN’s Lawsuit vs. MLB

The Job Creators Network is suing Major League Baseball (MLB), MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball Players Association and Executive Director Tony Clark to hold them accountable for the decision to move the MLB All-Star game from and the associated grievous economic consequences. JCN’s lawsuit calls on MLB and its defendants to immediately return the All-Star game to Atlanta or establish a relief fund to pay damages to the local small business community that it harmed.

Unfortunately, Commissioner Manfred believes he knows better than the elected officials of about what the laws in Georgia should be. He didn’t like the Voter Integrity Act that Georgia passed so he decided to punish Georgia business owners by moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta to . This decision violated the constitutional rights of not only JCN and its members but every citizen in the state of Georgia. Since MLB receives billions of dollars from state and local governments, they don’t have the right to dictate what the laws should be in any state.

As a result of the decision to move the All-Star game, local small businesses have suffered significant economic injury. After a year of enduring a pandemic induced recession, Atlanta’s small business owners were looking forward to the infusion of economic activity to help springboard their full recovery.

The Cobb County Travel and Tourism Bureau estimates that MLB’s decision to move the All-Star game will cost local businesses more than $100 million in lost economic activity. Hosting the game would have cost taxpayers approximately $2 million. According to Cobb County Chief Financial Officer William Volckmann, the county would see a “robust return” on the investment. Previous host cities have benefited with economic windfalls ranging from $37 million to $190 million.

More than 8,000 hotel reservations were canceled. Revenues from ticket sales, concession stands, and stadium food by the more than 41,000 people expected to attend the events at Truist Park were lost. Associated bar, restaurant, and other business revenues were also destroyed. Future Georgia events, such as conventions have cancelled, and Will Smith pulled the filming of his new movie out of Georgia.

Minority small businesses are especially hard-hit. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Atlanta is 51% black, while Denver is only 9% black. U.S. Census Bureau data also indicates that there are roughly 7.5 times more black-owned small businesses in Georgia than . Georgia is home to 1.1 million small businesses that make up 99.6% of all businesses in the state. They employ 1.7 million Georgia residents, approximately 43.1% of its workforce.

Georgia Voter Integrity Law

On March 26, 2021, Georgia Governor signed into law the Election integrity Act. The law aims to expand access to the voter box, promote transparency of voting laws, require voter ID and prohibit a range of practices that facilitate voter fraud like ballot harvesting, among others. In short, the goal of the law is to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.

Activists, such as and others, immediately began to wage a public relations campaign to smear the intent of the law by perpetuating lies and falsehoods, claiming the law would result in voter suppression and not allow voters to have water while they wait in line to vote. Even President weighed in on the new voter law stating he “would support Major League Baseball moving this year’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta in response to recently signed legislation that tightens voting laws in Georgia.” President Biden also said of the law, “This is Jim Crow on steroids, what they’re doing in Georgia.”

 The Washington Post fact-checked various complaints about the Georgia bill, ultimately finding that the experts it spoke to said “the net effect was to expand the opportunities to vote for most Georgians, not limit them.”

 Specifically, the Post found that while Biden and others claimed the new law “ends voting hours early so working people can’t cast their vote after their shift is over.” As the Post noted, the new law does no such thing.

 Critics of the bill also falsely claimed the new Georgia bill would prohibit food or drink from being passed out to people waiting in line to vote. As The Daily Wire previously reported, the bill does not prevent people waiting in line to vote from receiving food or water, but politicians and their staff cannot provide it in an effort to secure votes. Poll workers can pass out water or food as they see fit.

JCN and Barry Fleming, the chairman of the special committee on election integrity in the Georgia House of Representatives that passed Georgia’s new election law, published a comprehensive list on the top-10 lies about Georgia’s voting law. Despite this reporting, activists continued to repeat the false narrative about the law.

MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game

In July 2019 Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that the 2021 All-Star Game would be held at Truist Park, the home of the , in Cobb County, Georgia.

On April 2, 2021, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta. Commissioner Manfred stated, “I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Start Game…Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”

Four days later, on April 6, MLB announced the All-Star Game was to be played at in Denver, Colorado. The Game is scheduled for July 13, 2021.

Georgia Governor Kemp called losing the event “the direct result of repeated lies from Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams about a bill that expands access to the ballot box and ensures the integrity of our elections.”