Seven Republicans in the Iowa Senate say they have a game plan that could lure the Chicago Bears to move the historic N-F-L franchise to Iowa. Senator Scott Webster of Bettendorf says 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 said. “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 N-F-L 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.
