Arthur Blank, who owns the N.F.L.’s Atlanta Falcons, Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United, said “the right to vote is simply sacred.” He added in a statement: “We should be working to make voting easier, not harder for every eligible citizen.”
Christina Kim, an American golfer, said the Georgia law, and others like it, was certain to spark dialogue.
“There is such an importance in taking a moment, truly having conversations, not caring if it’s a red or blue state, representative, governor, mayor, person and just think about what the correct thing to do is,” Kim said.
Eric Reveno, an assistant men’s basketball coach at Georgia Tech who last year was the force behind the N.C.A.A. making Election Day a mandatory day off from athletic activities, was skeptical that moving events like basketball tournament games or football playoff games out of Georgia would have the desired effect.
“I worry it’s not a simple thing that a PR push can fix,” Reveno said. “I know there’s a lot of corporate pressure and the N.C.A.A. can do that. But that may be asking the N.C.A.A. to fix something that they can’t fix.”
Reveno said a grass-roots focus was more appropriate.
“If voting absentee is harder, voting by drop boxes is harder and there are less early voting dates, how can we help people vote?” he said. “Politicly and legally, what’s the best way to make voter participation and opportunity broader and more egalitarian?”
Corporate sponsors will most likely play an important role in determining whether baseball’s All-Star Game, or any other major sporting events, in Georgia or in other states, will be moved or canceled in protest of laws limiting access to voting. But so far, M.L.B. sponsors have been mostly silent.
