Atlanta Business Owners Say Possible World Series Windfall Won’t Make Up for All-Star Game Loss

Six months after Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star Game out of Georgia to protest the state’s new election-security law, Atlanta is back in the national spotlight as the hometown Braves make a drive to a possible spot in the World Series.

Local business owners told National Review that playoff baseball has been good for business, but it hasn’t offset the harm caused by the Delta variant and coronavirus-related restrictions. They also are still miffed over losing the All-Star Game, which according to some estimates could have injected $100 million into a local economy still reeling from the pandemic.

Brian Maloof, owner of Manuel’s Tavern in downtown Atlanta, doesn’t view the business he’s receiving from playoff baseball as offsetting the revenue he expected from the All-Star Game.

“We lost the All-Star Game; we lost those sales. Those can’t be recovered,” he said. “Am I going to get some additional sales because the Braves are doing well, and they’re in this next level? Yes. My preference would have been to have both.”

The Braves defeated the Milwaukee Brewers this week in the Division Series, the first round of the MLB playoffs, and starting Saturday will face the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League championship. A Braves win, bringing the World Series back to Atlanta for the first time since 1999, likely would put MLB leaders in an awkward position.

In April, Commissioner Rob Manfred said that pulling the All-Star Game out of Georgia was “the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport.” MLB’s decision came amid an uproar over the Georgia elections law, which left-wing activists, Democratic politicians, and even President Joe Biden mischaracterized as resurgent “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” A World Series appearance would shine an even brighter light on the state, which has not changed the law.

MLB did not respond to an email from National Review asking if the league’s leaders considered moving playoff games from Atlanta as a demonstration of its values.

MLB could have a double headache if the Braves in the National League end up facing the Houston Astros in the American League, putting the World Series in Georgia and Texas, another state with a new elections law driving the Left bonkers.

Darrell Anderson, a Braves fan and the owner of A Limousine Service Inc., an Atlanta-based transportation company, said the playoffs have been good for business. In addition to limousines, Anderson’s business rents out cars, vans, and even charter buses.

“But the All-Star Game was something we worked on for several years and planned to have here,” he said. “And all that business was lost.”

The World Series, he said, would be “awesome” for business.

There is debate over just how much a playoff run and a World Series appearance benefit local economies. The Houston Astros’ championship run in 2017 brought about $95 million to the local economy, or about $6 million to $8 million per game, according to a report by a Houston NBC affiliate. However, many economists and researchers downplay the economic impact professional sports championships have on host cities. The additional revenues generated by the events are just a drop in the bucket of the city’s overall economy, they argue.

“That sounds just like someone who has never signed the front of a paycheck,” said Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of the Job Creators Network  and an Atlanta-based small business advocate.

Major sporting events bring in out-of-state visitors, who bring additional business to local restaurants, hotels, car services, and convenience stores, Ortiz said in an email.

“A playoff run and potential World Series appearance will bring some money to the Atlanta community,” he said, “but it won’t make up for the $100 million already lost because of the All-Star Game fiasco.”

Ortiz noted that there are some benefits the All-Star Game brings that playoff baseball does not. For one, players from every team participate in All-Star Game events, so its interest is broad, he said. And because the All-Star Game typically is planned years in advance, fans have a lot of time to make travel arrangements and businesses have time to prepare.

By comparison, the Braves didn’t know until after midnight on Friday if they would start the National League Championship Series at home.

While he’s happy to have the playoff baseball business, Maloof said he’s still upset about losing the All-Star Game. He believes the game was taken away from Atlanta “under a false premise.”

The law expands early voting days in the state and authorizes absentee-ballot drop boxes for the first time. The most controversial measures — proposals to eliminate no-excuse absentee voting and Sunday voting — were removed before Governor Brian Kemp signed the law.

Maloof said his biggest struggles right now are pandemic-related. He has supply-chain issues and is struggling to get shipments of glassware, to-go bags, napkins, and other supplies. His food prices have skyrocketed; the price for a case of chicken wings has more than doubled since before the pandemic, he said. And like other restaurants, Maloof has had a hard time staffing his restaurant. The large pool of applicants he used to have has dried up.

Maloof said he’s promoting on social media that his restaurant has the Braves games on. He’s putting the games on his biggest TVs. It’s helping to draw some people in the door, he said.

“I’m glad the Braves are doing good. It is helping us,” he said. “We do have more people watching the game than normally would be here. And if they keep doing well and moving along in the process, I’m sure the crowds are going to [increase] and I’m going to be happy about it.”