The Major League Baseball (MLB) All Star Game will return to Atlanta even though a Georgia voting law is still in effect that caused an uproar and resulted in the game being moved in 2021.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced the All Star Game will be played at the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark, Truist Field in 2025 during a press conference Thursday afternoon.
“As a model of success on and off the field, the Braves deserve to host the All-Star Game,” Manfred said, adding that he looks forward to working with the Braves to deliver an All Star Game that “brings people together and benefits the community in many ways.”
In 2021, the Braves were set to host the All Star Game, but Manfred decided to move the game to the Rockies’ ballpark in Denver after an uproar over the state’s new voting law.
The Braves went on to win the World Series that year.
The Georgia voting law in question, the Election Integrity Act of 2021, restricted voting by mail and ballot drop boxes and implemented voter ID requirements. The law also requires two Saturdays of early voting ahead of general election, up from just one Saturday.
The law also banned outside groups from handing out food or water to people waiting in line to vote, but that ban was partially struck down by a federal judge in August.
Voting rights groups associated with Lebron James, Stacey Abrams, and Al Sharpton were reportedly pushing for the MLB to move the All Star Game, and the groups held discussions with Manfred.
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Manfred ended up concluding that the All Star Game would turn into a political event and players might even boycott the game, so the easiest solution was to move the game, sources told Fox News at the time.
Several months after the decision to move the game, Manfred said he was “not going to get into what I would need to see changed” for Atlanta to host the All Star Game in the future.
“Atlanta is an important market to us, and it will certainly be an option at some point in the future,” Manfred told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in July 2021.
The MLB commissioner addressed his previous decision during Thursday’s press conference.
“I made the decision in 2021 to move the event, and I understand that — believe me — people had then and probably still have different views as to the merits of that decision,” Manfred said.