The tax-exempt status of profit-making sports leagues is suddenly in the spotlight as lawmakers from both parties prepare to debate ways reforms to the federal tax code, Bloomberg.com reports.

According to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, repealing the tax-exempt status for pro sports leagues like the National Football League, the National Hockey League, and the Professional Golfers' Association of America would boost federal revenues by $109 million between 2014 and 2023. "To bring in more revenue to the government is obviously something that has some appeal," said Michael McCann, professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law and director of its Sports and Entertainment Law Institute.

Indeed, in a July letter to the ranking members of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) called for ending tax subsidies for professional sports leagues. While pro leagues have beat back similar challenges to their tax-exempt status in the past, other changes to the tax code currently being considered are so popular that a broad package of reforms that includes an end to the pro sports subsidy may succeed in gaining bipartisan support.

College sports are a different matter. According to UNH's McCann, lawmakers in general have treaded lightly when it comes to the tax-exempt status of college sports associations like the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Coburn, for instance, never mentioned college sports in his letter to the Senate Finance Committee. And while Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the senior Republican member of the Finance Committee and a frequent critic of subsidies for nonprofit organizations, has raised questions about the NFL's tax-exempt status, he has been far less vocal about the NCAA. For his part, McCann said the tax exempt status of the NCAA should be on the table and that there was "merit to discussing an exemption that's supposed to be based on academics."