Iowa Bears? Really? State looks to lure NFL team with stadium funding pitch

Des Moines has the I-Cubs.

How about the I-Bears?

In a move bordering on parody, Iowa lawmakers filed a proposed bill Tuesday designed to try to lure the Bears to their state. Senate File 2252 would expand a current state economic development program to incentivize building an NFL stadium in Iowa.

Kerry Gruenhagen, a Republican senator from Walcott, said in a statement that “while Illinois and Indiana squabble over this issue, we are ready to get off the sidelines and into the game.”

The Bears won’t take such an offer seriously. Des Moines is about 330 miles west of Chicago, while the Quad Cities are about 170 miles away.

The Bears own 326 acres in Arlington Heights, which the team has declared to be the only suitable site in Cook County. Late last year, though, the Bears began discussing building across state lines in Indiana. Last month, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell joined Bears chairman George McCaskey and president/CEO Kevin Warren on tours of Arlington Heights and two Indiana sites — near Wolf Lake in Hammond and the Hard Rock Casino in Gary. The city of Portage will throw its hat into the ring Wednesday, albeit as a long shot, when it holds a press conference touting “Halas Harbor” along the Burns Waterway.

Warren was hired more than three years ago to seal a stadium deal, but the team’s search drags on. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said this week that talks to keep the Bears in Illinois were progressing even as Indiana continued its flirtation.