Minor league baseball team faces discrimination lawsuit for holding ladies night promotion

The Fresno Grizzlies, a minor league affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, faced a discrimination lawsuit over a “Ladies Night” promotion from last season.

The lawsuit was filed against the team last week, according to YourCentralValley.com. It hinges on the promotion from May 25, 2023, in which female fans were allowed into the ballpark for free while men and “nonbinary persons” needed to pay to get into Chukchansi Park.

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Fresno Grizzlies host Visalia Rawhide on May 9, 2023. (Ron Holman/Visalia Times-Delt/USA Today Network)

Harry Crouch, the male plaintiff in the lawsuit, said he paid $18 to get into the stadium while the female plaintiff, Christine Johnson, was able to get into the game for free.

“The Fresno Grizzlies’ ill-conceived ‘Ladies’ Night’ promotion seemingly sexualized female fans by treating them as little more than sexual bait in order to attract men to buy tickets to the game. In doing so, the Grizzlies’ male-dominated front office managed to pull (off) a rare trifecta of sex discrimination – misogyny, exorsexism, and misandry all at once – by treating female, nonbinary, and male fans unequally based solely on their gender,” Alfred Rava, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told the station in a statement.

Kevin Little, an attorney based in Fresno, said any organization that holds similar events runs the risk of violating the Unruh Act.

A bag of baseballs at the minor league game between the Fresno Grizzlies and the Tacoma Rainiers on May 21, 2019, at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington. (Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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The law “provides protection from discrimination by all business establishments in California, including housing and public accommodations, because of age, ancestry, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation.”

The Grizzlies didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Fresno fans saw the Grizzlies win the game over Stockton Ports, 10-2.

Starting pitcher Henderson Alvarez III of the Fresno Grizzlies goes up against the Las Vegas Aviators on April 14, 2019, at Las Vegas Ballpark. (Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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Ladies Night is not on the calendar for the 2024 season.

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