(Radio Iowa) – Major League Baseball officials flew to Des Moines to meet with Iowa lawmakers this week to discuss a bill that would ban T-V blackouts that prevent Iowans from watching six different teams in the region. Representative J.D. Scholten, a Democrat from Sioux City who played professional baseball in six countries, co-sponsored the bill. It seeks to end Major League Baseball rules that prohibit games featuring the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins and Milwaukee Brewers from airing on T-V screens in Iowa.

Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver also met with the M-L-B officials.

Whitver calls the blackouts ridiculous and he says the league plans to work with their network broadcast partners to fix it.

Scholten says Major League Baseball has been promising to fix this issue since 2015, so he plans to continue pressing for
passage of the bill.

But Scholten says the first test of whether the league is serious about broadcasting more games into Iowa may come soon. The Diamond Sports Group that’s been broadcasting Twins, Royals, Cardinals and Brewers games on T-V has filed for bankruptcy. Major League Baseball has announced that if the company doesn’t pay its rights fees, the league is prepared to take over broadcasting duties.