JEFFERSON CITY — State Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, has filed legislation calling on Congress to end Major League Baseball’s (MLB) decades-old antitrust exemption under federal law. The resolution was filed in response to MLB’s politically-motivated decision to move this year’s All-Star Game from Georgia to Colorado due to a voting law passed by the Georgia legislature.
“This is yet another instance of corporate virtue signaling and sports stoking the culture wars in this country,” Sen. Brattin said. “Basing its decision on misleading information and outright lies, Major League Baseball is undercutting the basis of its antitrust exemption, that it is a sport and not a business, by punishing their political opponents with the location of the All-Star Game. If baseball wants to be more than just a sport, then we should treat them like the business they are and end their special antitrust status under federal law.”
Baseball’s antitrust exemption has been in place since a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court decision and has been updated several times through the years, including the Curt Flood Act passed by Congress in 1998. With this, baseball enjoys several special privileges under law, including franchise relocation and broadcast negotiations. Other professional sports leagues, such as the NFL, NHL and the NBA don’t have this antitrust exemption.
“Most Missourians support requiring an I.D. to vote” Sen. Brattin said. “Most Missourians and Americans support secure elections and ensuring the integrity of our elections. MLB is thumbing their nose at these Americans and telling them ‘your opinion doesn’t matter.’ MLB’s actions reek of hypocrisy and is another example of woke corporate America using their money and status to dictate public policy. Someone needs to call out this hypocrisy and push back. That’s what this resolution is about.”
Major League Baseball is a nearly $11 billion a year industry that does business across the globe, including with Communist China. In addition, various news outlets have reported the voting laws in Colorado are substantially similar, if not more restrictive, to those of Georgia. The move will also reportedly cost the economy and small businesses of Georgia an estimated $100 million in lost revenue and economic activity.