Seven Republicans in the Iowa Senate say they have a game plan that could lure the Chicago Bears to move the historic NFL franchise to Iowa.
Senator Scott Webster of Bettendorf said the Quad Cities would be the most logical spot to build a new stadium. “In 1920 the NFL started in Rock Island, an original franchise of the NFL. There’s storied history there,” Webster told Radio Iowa. “You’re drive traffic from Des Moines. You’re going to drive traffic from up near Madison — not everybody in Wisconsin is a Packers’ fan. You’re going to draw from St. Louis to a centralized location where they could fill that stadium each year. I think it’s the perfect place for it, if they want to do it.”
The Bears’ ownership has talked for years about building a new stadium, with the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights the preferred location, but a bill moving through Indiana’s legislature would pave the way for a publicly financed stadium for the Bears in Gary, Indiana. The bill introduced in the Iowa Senate would make an NFL stadium eligible for Iowa’s Major Economic Growth Attraction or MEGA Program, with property tax breaks and refundable tax credits for the initial investment and the new jobs created, along with refunds of sales taxes paid during construction.
“I think Iowa has the capacity to bring professional sports into Iowa in this form with the right and appropriate negotiation where we look diligently at it for the taxpayer,” Webster said. “and look at the investment that will be made in our state, investments that we can help make that will help drive our economy and drive more people to Iowa.”
Webster is co-sponsoring the bill with Senators Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs, Kerry Gruenhagen of Walcott, Dawn Driscoll of Williamsburg), Mike Bousselot of Ankeny, Cherielynn Westrich of Ottumwa and Carrie Koelker of Dyersville.
Webster, who was born in 1980, was alive when the Bears won the Super Bowl 40 years ago and is serving as a spokesman for the group pushing this plan. “I still have the poster I hung in my room with Jim McMahon,” Webster said, “and the ‘Bears Shuffle.'”
Webster, though, closes his pitch with the title of the Bears’ Fight Song. “Bear down,” Webster said. “Let’s see what happens.”