MLB Announces All-Star Game Will Be Relocated to Coors Field in Colorado

Coors Field, the home of the Rockies, will be the site of the 2021 MLB All-Star Game, the MLB officially announced on Monday. 

The game was originally scheduled to be held in Atlanta, but MLB elected to relocate as a response to Georgia's new voting law, which critics say makes it harder for voters of color to cast a ballot. The league also announced it was relocating its draft from Atlanta.

""Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. "In 2020, MLB became the first professional sports league to join the non-partisan Civic Alliance to help build a future in which everyone participates in shaping the United States. We proudly used our platform to encourage baseball fans and communities throughout our country to perform their civic duty and actively participate in the voting process. Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was scheduled to throw out the first pitch for the Rangers on Monday but announced he would not because of MLB's All-Star Game decision. 

"I was looking forward to it—until Major League Baseball adopted what turned out to be a false narrative about the election law reforms in Georgia, and, based on that false narrative, moved the MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta," Abbott wrote to Rangers president and chief operating officer Neil Liebman.

"It is shameful that America's pastime is not only being influenced by partisan political politics, but also perpetuating false political narratives."

Coors Field last hosted the MLB All-Star Game in 1998.