MLB All-Star Game officially moved to Denver

Major League Baseball officially announced on Tuesday that its All-Star Game, scheduled for July 13, will take place in Denver, after the league pulled the competition out of Atlanta last week in protest of the state’s new restrictive voting laws.

“Major League Baseball is grateful to the Rockies, the City of Denver and the State of Colorado for their support of this summer’s All-Star Game,” MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred wrote in a statement.

“We appreciate their flexibility and enthusiasm to deliver a first-class event for our game and the region. We look forward to celebrating our sport’s best players and entertaining fans around the world,” Manfred added.

MLB, according to the statement, selected the Rockies to host the game because they were “already in the bidding process to host a future All-Star Game.”

The league added that the Rockies had “supplied a detailed plan” for hotel, event space and security, which took months to put together, and MLB staff had already made “several site visits to Denver.”

Gov. Jared Polis (D) and Mayor Michael Hancock, the league added, both committed to providing the “necessary facilities and services” needed to support the festivities.

Colorado Rockies COO Greg Feasel celebrated the announcement in the statement, writing “We are excited to host this year’s All-Star festivities at Coors Field.”

“Summer in Colorado is something everyone in the country should experience, and we embrace this opportunity to show off our beautiful ballpark and everything our city, state and region have to offer,” Feasel said.

“We are confident that our organization along with the city, state, VISIT DENVER and the Denver Sports Commission are capable of putting on this premier event in a relatively quick time frame because of the preparations that had already been done,” Feasel added.

The announcement from MLB comes less than one week after the league decided to move the game out of Atlanta, following the signing of a restrictive voting rights bill in Georgia.

“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” Manfred wrote in a statement when announcing the decision to move the game.

The decision, according to Manfred, was made after conversations with teams and players. The league then decided that moving the game out of the Peach State was “the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport.”

Following the league’s decision, the city of Denver began lobbying to host the game, Yahoo Finance reported. Hancock told the outlet that his city was “ready to host” the game, citing the city’s “progressive voting system.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a sweeping elections bill into law late last month that tightened a number of voting regulations in the state.

The legislation limits the use of ballot drop boxes, sets photo ID requirements for absentee voting, and makes it a crime for people to hand out water or food to individuals standing in line, claiming that such actions are a form of a gift that should be outlawed.

After MLB announced that it was pulling the game out of Atlanta, a number of Republicans scrutinized Manfred’s membership at Georgia’s exclusive Augusta National Golf Club, and threatened to take away MLB’s long-held antitrust exemption.