According to a report from prominent reporter/writer Howard Bryant, MLB’s decision to move the 2021 All-Star Game and draft out of Atlanta was not driven by a threatened player boycott, but rather by “Corporate sponsor pressure.” According to Bryant, neither the players nor the MLBPA was permitted a vote on the issue.
“Just got off the phone with MLB/MLBPA sources who all confirmed the same thing: MLB’s decision to move was the result of corporate sponsor pressure. It was NOT the result of a player-threatened boycott. The players did not even vote on the issue.”
Bryant went further, claiming that even an organized group of players who have been attempting to pressure MLB to adopt more social-justice-friendly stances had told the Players’ Association that they would play the game as normal, whether it was in Atlanta or anywhere else.
Corporations have been feeling intense pressure, driven by Democrats and liberal activists (in the media and elsewhere) to oppose Georgia’s new voting reform law, and the early indications are that liberal pressure has worked. Earlier this week, corporations like Delta, Coca-Cola and others issued statements condemning the law as “unacceptable” even as most of those same corporations did not enunciate a single actual provision of the law they found objectionable.
Bryant did not indicate which corporate sponsors were responsible for the pressure, but MLB lists the following companies as corporate sponsors on their website:
Arm and Hammer
Bank of America
Blue-Emu Pain Relief Cream
Budweiser
Camping World
Chevrolet
Clear
Citrix
Draft Kings
Evan Williams Bourbon
Extreme Networks
Flonase
Gatorade
Geico
Good Sam
Hankook Tires
HyperIce
Loan Depot
Lysol
Mastercard
MGM Resorts
Mitel
Netspend
NTT
Old Dominion Freight Lines
Oxi Clean
Roman
Scotts
SiriusXM
Spectrum Solutions
Taco Bell
T-Mobile
Utz
Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi
After the move, MLB is facing boycott calls of its own. MLB already faces a severe revenue crunch from the lack of in-person attendance last year, expected diminished attendance this year due to ongoing COVID-19 social distancing requirements, and declining television viewership.
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