Getty Images

The NFL is telling teams they can no longer charge fans for playoff tickets until they have actually clinched a home playoff game.

Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal reports that owners voted today to prohibit teams from charging in advance for playoff tickets. Fans now cannot be billed for playoff tickets until a team is sure that it will play a playoff game at home. In the past, some teams had charged fans for tickets to playoff games that they ended up not actually hosting, and then either refunded the money or credited the money to the next year’s season tickets.

The NFL has become increasingly concerned about selling playoff tickets after last year’s wild card weekend, when three of the four teams hosting playoff games struggled to sell out their stadiums. This move would seem, however, to make it a little more difficult for teams to sell playoff tickets, as they’ll have less time to do so.

Still, this feels like a more fan-friendly policy, as it’s not exactly a great deal for fans to be forced to pay for playoff tickets to a game that never ends up taking place.