There may be some good news for people living in areas where they have to suffer when not enough people buy tickets to their favorite teams. According to a report in Adweek, a bipartisan effort led by John McCain and Richard Blumenthal is pressuring the FCC to take action on an 18-month old petition to ban sports blackouts.
Blackouts often happen when sports teams don't sell out their stadiums to capacity, or a certain number of tickets.
"Commenters have put forth a wide range of proposals, from maintaining the Sports Blackout Rule in its current form, to establishing a sunset and renewal process, to eliminating the rule altogether," the senators argue in the letter to the FCC. "With so much detailed information on the record from such a wide range of stakeholders, it is time for the Commission to take the next logical step and move to a (Notice of Public Rule Making)."
You can read the whole thing here.
The Sports Fans Coalition, an advocacy group, praised the letter in comments to The Hill.
"Sen. McCain and Sen. Blumenthal are true friends of the sports fan," David Goodfriend, chairman of the Sports Fans Coalition, told the newspaper. "They understand that taking away games, especially when those games use public funds, is just plain wrong. And in this case, a federal rule that props up sports blackouts is just plain wrong."
