Bussinessman proposes recreation complex in Davenport

A man who owns hotels and restaurants throughout the Upper Midwest says Davenport needs a place to play in the winter months. Mike Whalen is president of Heart of American Restaurants & Inns. he’s proposing a sports complex for city-owned riverfront property. It would be west of John O’Donnell Stadium and next to an indoor ice rink. Whelan says the facility would include an indoor aquatic facility, four indoor playing fields, and an outdoor ice rink. Whalen made his suggestion to a projects committee of “Davenport One.” He says he doesn’t yet have a cost estimate for the complex. Whalen says he has heard reasons to expand the hockey rink. Friends tell him their kids have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get there for available practice times, so there must be a need for more ice. Whalen says in addition to an indoor rink, the community needs more outdoor skating areas in winterHe says people would like a place that’s lighted, perhaps with music and hot chocolate. He says on a nice day it could handle a couple hundred people. Whalen says the complex should include a top-notch swimming pool.And Whalen says though it would look different than his proposal, he thinks a covered field sports facility would be the key part of the complex, with space for soccer and field hockey practice for the entire Quad-cities area.