Most of the exemption is gone.
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who thought it was a pretty good idea to vacation at a Mexican resort while his state was in the midst of a freeze which caused many Texas residents to lose power, has come up with a notion. Punish Major League Baseball for moving the 2021 All Star Game out of Cobb County, Georgia because of the state’s new voter law by stripping Major League Baseball of its antitrust exemption. The Supreme Court of the United States gave the National and the American Leagues the status in a 1922 ruling against the Baltimore Terrapins. Baseball was a game not a business. Cruz should be aware that the antitrust exemption has been considerably weakened over the last 99 years and basically is there to keep a third team out of the New York market and to prevent the Oakland A’s ownership from moving operations to San Jose, which is San Francisco Giants territory. Cruz might also want to note that the San Francisco Giants principal owner Charles Johnson is sports’ biggest financial contributor to the Republican Party. Johnson might not like losing the exemption. It could open the door to Oakland’s ownership for a move to San Jose if a stadium is not built in Oakland.
Cruz might not know all American sports leagues can split network television money equally because of the 1961 Sports Broadcast Act and in a case involving the planned move of the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League to Hamilton, Ontario, a judge ruled leagues can set up territories and control territories. But Cruz, Utah Senator Mike Lee and Republican Congressman Jeff Duncan of South Carolina are planning to push ahead because they like Georgia’s law that could lead to voter suppression. They also feel MLB needs to pay a price for the All-Star Game move decision.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
