The 40-year-old federal rules that support the National Football League's TV blackout policy could finally be eliminated this month. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler today scheduled a vote for September 30 on "a proposal to get rid of the FCC’s blackout rule once and for all," he wrote today.

"There is no better example of an FCC rule that has outlived its usefulness and deserves to be eliminated than our sports blackout rule," Wheeler wrote. "In 1975, the Commission enacted rules barring cable from airing a game that has been blacked out on the local television station because it was not sold out—strengthening the NFL’s blackout policy. Today, the rules make no sense at all."

Pro football doesn't need the government's help to boost ticket sales, "and we at the FCC shouldn’t be complicit in preventing sports fans from watching their favorite teams on TV," he continued.

Three votes on the five-member commission are needed to repeal the rules, and Wheeler is likely to get them. The FCC's preliminary vote on the issue last December was unanimous. Since then, the commission has taken comments from the public, and support for repeal remains bipartisan. While Wheeler is a Democrat, Republican commissioner Ajit Pai has also been outspoken in support of ending the blackout rules.

Ending the rules won't automatically ensure that all games are shown on local television, because the NFL could still enforce blackouts through private contracts. Still, the NFL has tried to convince the FCC to preserve the rules, and it led an astroturf campaign to make it seem as though fans support a policy that sometimes prevents them from watching games. The NFL claims blackouts are fan-friendly, limiting incentives to raise ticket prices and keeping games on free broadcast networks rather than paid TV packages. But economists have disputed that argument, and Wheeler isn't buying it either.