U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is calling for the passage of her “For the Fans Act”, requiring all Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Bucks games to be made available to Wisconsinites for free online — right as the Packers season kicks into full swing.
The bill was first introduced to the U.S. Senate in April. Its key provision requires all major sports leagues to make games free to stream for local fans, limited to the residents of the state in which the team plays.
This legislation comes as costs to watch professional sports have risen. To watch every NFL game of the 2026 season, fans can expect to pay upward of $1,000 for a combination of streaming services and television subscriptions.
Four of the 17 Packers games this season are exclusively on paywalled streaming services. For Baldwin, this is four too many.
“Wisconsinites shouldn’t have to shell out for a maze of streaming subscriptions just to catch their favorite team,” Baldwin told The Daily Cardinal in an email statement. “Rooting for our favorite sports teams brings people together. Unfortunately, so does the confusion and high costs that fans have to deal with.”
Of the four paywalled games, two are on Amazon Prime and two are on Netflix.
Each of the streaming giants have negotiated long-term, multibillion dollar deals with the NFL. Prime’s $1-billion-per-year deal runs through the 2033 season while Netflix extended its deal through 2029 in May.
While these contracts guarantee Prime and Netflix exclusive national rights to games, fans in Green Bay and Milwaukee television markets already enjoy free access to paywalled broadcasts.The NFL requires these games to be available on local broadcast stations in participating teams’ home markets. Baldwin’s legislation would extend free access to fans statewide.
The system the NFL has set for free local viewership could serve as precedent for expanding access statewide. For other leagues, this is not the case.
While the NFL sells all of its broadcasting rights nationally, MLB and NBA teams like the Brewers and Bucks rely more heavily on local broadcasting network revenues.
Under the current MLB system, each club retains 52% of all local broadcasting revenue for itself. For a team like the Brewers, this bill might mean foregoing its current $99 season pass model — the mode in which 150 of its 162 regular season games were aired.
The bill allows for the free broadcasts to be “supported by ads,” but it’s unclear if the increased ad revenue from higher viewership would offset lost revenues from local network subscription fees.
Regardless of feasibility, owners of professional teams may have the power to prevent the passage of any legislation that threatens to cut revenues.
In the election cycles since 2020, nearly all of the owners of the MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, NWSL and WNBA franchises were active political donors; As of November 2024, owners donated more than $132 million to federal election campaigns. Roughly 95% of these donations were Republican-leaning.
Sports fans, on the other hand, strongly support Baldwin’s legislation. According to a survey of likely voters, 73% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans supported the bill.
Most recently, Baldwin introduced the act as an amendment to a college sports bill in committee, her office told the Cardinal. The amendment was not included in the final bill.
The “For the Fans Act” currently sits with the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where it has been awaiting further action since April 15.
Senior staff writer
