John,

Today is Major League Baseball’s Opening Day. But Iowans won’t be able to watch many of the games because of MLB’s blackout restrictions.

Despite not having a MLB team in Iowa, MLB has blackout restrictions with six different teams here in our state. You can’t watch the Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals or Kansas City Royals even if you have a subscription to MLB.tv.

I want to put an end to Major League Baseball (MLB) blackout restrictions, John.

The MLB Blackouts are just another example of multinational corporations and organizations that take advantage of regular Iowans. We’ve seen this at the gas pump when the prices go up for consumers while oil conglomerates rake in massive profits. And we see this at the grocery stores, with prices going up while multinational corporations have raked in record profits during the pandemic.

In 2020, MLB cut 42 minor league teams including two in Iowa: the Burlington Bees and the Clinton LumberKings. Currently, there are 3 minor league teams left in Iowa: Quad Cities Bandits, Cedar Rapids Kernels and the Iowa Cubs. There are blackout restrictions to all three MLB teams affiliated with these minor league teams, meaning that Iowans can watch these players in the minor leagues but they can’t follow them when they make it to the Big Leagues. 

For me, the MLB Blackouts are personal. I grew up watching baseball games on the TV set. And I was blessed to have played professionally and around the globe. But right now, Iowans are unable to watch 40% of MLB games on a given night.  

If MLB doesn’t do something about these blackout restrictions, I plan to take legislative action, if elected.

Standing Tall for All,

J.D. Scholten

P.S. Check out my homemade shirt that I wore at last year’s Field of Dreams game: 

If you'd like to send a check to Scholten for Iowa, please mail it to: Scholten for Iowa, P.O. Box 5351, Sioux City, IA 51102.