Coors Field in Denver will hold the All-Star Game and its surrounding events, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday.
MLB opted to move the game out of Atlanta due to voting laws passed in Georgia last month.
“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,” commissioner Rob Manfred said 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.”
This will be the second time the homer-friendly home of the Rockies will host the Midsummer Classic. The American League beat the National League 13-8 at Coors in 1998.
This year’s All-Star Game originally was scheduled for July 13 at Truist Park, home of the Braves. However, on Friday, MLB announced that it decided to move the game out of Atlanta because of a new Georgia law that has civil rights groups concerned about its potential to restrict voting access for people of color.
Manfred said in a statement at the time that he discussed the potential move with individual major leaguers and the Players Alliance, an organization of Black players formed after the death of George Floyd last year, before ultimately deciding to make the call “as the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last month a sweeping, Republican-sponsored bill that includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run. The bill, which also prohibits volunteers from distributing food and water to voters waiting in line, was finalized on March 25 roughly 15 miles from Truist Park.
The new voting law came in the wake of the first Democratic victories in presidential and Senate elections in Georgia in a generation, which triggered repeated unproven assertions by former President Donald Trump that the state’s election was fraudulent. Supporters of the new law have said it merely ensures election integrity and stamps out potential fraud, while critics have described it as a voter suppression tactic that would make it more difficult for minorities, particularly people of color, to vote, citing how it reduces ballot access in urban communities that lean Democratic.
The 2022 All-Star Game will be played at Dodger Stadium.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.