Grassley scorched for bogus claim moving All-Star Game out of Atlanta cost '100 million jobs'

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is claiming Major League Baseball's decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta will cost the city "100 million jobs." There are just over 150 million Americans who are currently employed, so the Iowa Republicans Senator is claiming that effectively, two-thirds of working Americans will lose their jobs because of the move, which is false.
Major League Baseball pulled the game out of Atlanta in response to Republican Governor Brian Kemp signing what has been called "one of the most restrictive and dangerous anti-voter bills in the country."
But the game is moving to Colorado, so there would be no jobs lost.
Senator Grassley is wrong. He might have been listening to an April 5 Fox News report, which claimed pulling out of Atlanta cost the city $100 million, but actual experts disagree, with one saying the amount is "a whole lot closer to zero than the $100m number Atlanta was throwing."
The Guardian reports "Georgia's $100m figure surely makes for a juicy cable-news chyron, the consensus among sports economists is these estimates are routinely exaggerated."
"The rule of thumb that I always tell everyone," economics professor Victor Matheson told The Guardian, "is just take whatever number the boosters are telling you, move the decimal one place to the left and you've probably got a pretty good guess."
Chuck Grassley claims MLB moving the All-Star Game from Georgia cost the state "100 million jobs" https://t.co/bEHQvTEK25— Timothy Burke (@Timothy Burke) 1618928423
Grassley is getting scorched.
Gaffe aside couldn't the state have gotten the All-Star Game back by - just spitballing here - repealing the law ML… https://t.co/rlPwiIM7jm— David Weigel (@David Weigel) 1618928884
@bubbaprog The concession employees if someone asked for a soda at the Atlanta MLB All-Star Game https://t.co/kz3GeHZhbm— Ryan (@Ryan) 1618928814
The year is 2050. Everyone in the US works for either Major League Baseball, the National Football League, or SBNat… https://t.co/jE9d5HVjg6— Eshaan Vakil (@Eshaan Vakil) 1618929904
That’s 9.5 times the total population of Georgia https://t.co/6yPfjF4gf0— *you’re (parody) (@*you’re (parody)) 1618930816
@bubbaprog What cost “100 million jobs” was not moving the game, it was implementing stupid and racist voting restrictions.— Fritznkappler (@Fritznkappler) 1618929187
It's true. To this day, Toronto's largest employer remains the 1991 All-Star Game. https://t.co/akCKZHYRrK— Mike Beauvais (@Mike Beauvais) 1618929404
If this were true, it would mean that one person buying one ticket to the Major League Baseball ASG would have crea… https://t.co/oKjSJEhYbi— Jonathan Smith (@Jonathan Smith) 1618930591
One-third of the United States will be employed by the MLB All-Star Game. Guess my offer letter just got lost in th… https://t.co/WxHSYH6bpw— Pat_Garofalo (@Pat_Garofalo) 1618930889
Big if true (it's not) https://t.co/mwXa3UMpLq— Dan Pfeiffer (@Dan Pfeiffer) 1618930953
im gonna have to assume that Chuck Grassley has not watched a baseball game in a while. 100 million jobs????? how… https://t.co/wOWtHh6dq5— Gibby (@Gibby) 1618931389
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