The National Football League season starts in four weeks.

That may not be as noticeable in the NFL’s lesser markets, as determined by success, or lack thereof, of their teams. The NFL has a rule that blacks out TV broadcasts if the game isn’t sold out within 72 hours of kickoff (or 48 hours if the NFL grants an extension, which it usually does when asked).

This is almost never an issue in Wisconsin, though it almost was last year when the Packers’ playoff game against San Francisco went deep into the week before it was sold out. Home NFL games — even playoff games such as the Ice Bowl — were always blacked out in home markets (in the Packers’ case, Green Bay and Milwaukee) until the early 1970s.

Federal Communications Commission commissioner Ajit Pai believes the blackout rule should be wiped out, and took the opportunity of an appearance in Buffalo to say so:

There’s no better place to discuss that topic than the City of No Illusions. This city has a rich sports tradition—the Bills, as you know, remain the only team ever to win four consecutive conference championships—and Buffalo is legendary for its loyal sports fans.

In some places, fair-weather fans find it easy to cheer for the home team. But Buffalonians don’t have that luxury. They’ve suffered their share of disappointments. As one local writer put it earlier this year, “If you are a sports fan in Buffalo, you know the words let-down, heartbreak and emptiness.” Brett Hull’s triple-overtime goal against the Sabres in Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup. The Braves of the NBA leaving town in 1978 to become the Clippers. And, perhaps most painfully—wide right.

Unfortunately, the heartbreak isn’t even limited to the playing field. Over the last four seasons, nine Buffalo Bills home games have been blacked out in Western New York. And that’s where the FCC comes in.

Late last year, the FCC announced that it would consider eliminating its sports blackout rule. League blackout policies can prohibit local television broadcast stations from airing games. And if the local stations can’t broadcast it, the FCC’s blackout rule prohibits cable and satellite companies (within a local blackout zone) from carrying it. This hurts fans who can’t go to the game. …

In the wake of the FCC’s announcement last year, hundreds of people around the country have given us their opinions on whether the sports blackout rule is necessary today. … And one of the most persuasive proponents for getting rid of this rule has been Buffalo’s own Congressman Brian Higgins. …

To be sure, Congressman Higgins and I don’t agree on everything. He backs the Bills. I cheer for the Chiefs. He’s a Democrat. I’m a Republican. But there are at least three things that can unite Buffalo and Kansas City partisans and folks of all political stripes. First, there’s admiration for Marv Levy, who coached both of our teams with distinction. Second, it has been, is, and always should be the Buffalo Bills. And there’s also this: The time has come for the FCC to repeal its sports blackout rule.

Why do I say that? After carefully reviewing all of the arguments, I don’t believe the government should intervene in the marketplace and help sports leagues enforce their blackout policies. Our job is to serve the public interest, not the private interests of team owners.

During my time at the FCC, I have consistently stressed the need to get rid of unnecessary regulations—of rules that have outlived whatever usefulness they once might have had, of rules that keep hard-working American consumers out of the end zone. The sports blackout rule is just such a rule. …

Right now, the FCC is officially on the side of blackouts. We should be on the side of sports fans like Jon Neubauer, who told WIVB News 4 “I can’t make it to every single [Bills] game, [but] I’m still a huge fan.” I want the FCC to help fans like him watch the stars of tomorrow: the next Andre Reed, who was just inducted into the Hall of Fame (and who has stood up for Buffalo of late); the next Thurman Thomas, who made it to five straight Pro Bowls; and the next Jim Kelly, whose brave battle against cancer inspires us even more than all of his on-field heroics.

Admittedly, if the FCC’s job is not to stand up for the private interest of NFL team owners, it will be standing up for the private interest of Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN, which broadcast the games.

The NFL, meanwhile, isn’t taking this sitting down, reports The Hill:

Just in time for kickoff, the National Football League is pushing federal regulators to keep a rule on the books that forces cable and satellite companies to black out some games. …

The league argues the rule helps teams sell tickets and creates a compelling stadium atmosphere, allowing the NFL to keep games on free television.

League lobbyist Ken Edmonds and other officials met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s legal adviser last Thursday “to emphasize that the FCC’s sports blackout rule remains necessary and in the public interest,” according to a filing made public this week.

NFL officials told the FCC that the league is working with teams “to make blackouts exceedingly rare” by letting them lower the bar of what counts as a sold-out game, and noted that attendance has increased and the number of blackouts “has dropped dramatically.”

Last year, for instance, just two of the NFL’s 256 regular season games were blacked out.

“Although the League has taken a variety of steps to accomplish that goal, the blackout rule has been a critical contributing factor to that success,” league lawyers wrote.

In recent weeks, the NFL has also sent thousands of letters to the FCC from football fans who want to keep the blackout rule alive. The league also set up a website this summer calling for fans to “protect football on free TV,” offering links to contact Congress and the FCC.

The battle is being waged over the airwaves, too.

[Lynn] Swann, the Hall of Fame wide receiver and former Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate, said in an interview with the NFL Network over the weekend that the rule “helps grow the game and helps maintain it.”

“We need to make sure to protect the game so the widest number of people possible can view it and keep it on free TV for those people who don’t buy cable packages,” said Swann. He has been taking his pitch to local sports reporters and editors across the country.

When the rules were first adopted in 1975, teams said they were necessary to ensure that fans kept attending games in person instead of just watching them on TV. The potential for games to be blacked out encouraged people to buy tickets, they say, and maintain the revenue stream.

But critics of the rules argue that times have changed. The blackout rule allows NFL teams to be immune from the normal pressures of a free market and disproportionally hurts teams in smaller cities, they say.

For now, it looks like the reformers may be winning out.

Last December, the FCC unanimously voted to move forward with a plan to end the decades-old rules.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pushed strongly for the commission to finalize that process this summer.

So far, the FCC is still reviewing the arguments and has yet to place the item on its agenda.

In the meantime, officials at the commission have held several meetings with the Sports Fan Coalition, a group pushing to kill the blackout rule.

Even if the FCC did get rid of the rule, leagues like the NFL would still be able to negotiate individually with broadcasters, cable providers and satellite companies to black out some games.

One therefore wonders why the FCC is getting involved if the blackout rule could be negotiated between the NFL and its broadcasters anyway.

There is a big issue Pai could have brought up that is an even better rationale for eliminating the blackout rule. With exactly one exception (for instance, MetLife Stadium, home of the Giants and Jets), every stadium built since 1997 used at least some taxpayer funds, and most used a majority of taxpayer funds. (That includes Lambeau Field, the early 2000s renovations for which were paid for by a 0.5-percent Brown County sales tax.) Even the stadiums that didn’t use a majority of public funding for building construction certainly used public funds for infrastructure, including new roads to get to the stadium.

That doesn’t mean that taxpayers should get into NFL games for free. That does mean that taxpayers should at least be able to see what’s going on in the stadiums their tax money built, in this case by having home games on TV.