Changes to transform Davenport's riverfront could be on the way. City leaders and the Quad Cities River Bandits are planning to install a Ferris wheel at Modern Woodmen Park beyond left field. The Ferris wheel would be open seven days a week, even on non-game days.
It'll go by the score board, and the rear wall there will need to be moved back several feet to fit, but nothing else will move.
Along with that a carousel here by the playground at the base of Centennial Bridge. There will also a zip-line starting along the first baseline going across the ballpark. The zip-line would be moved to go along Gaines street on game days.
City council is set to approve this plan Wednesday but with the Ferris wheel, one of the big concerns is flooding. The plan is to put it on top of the berms on the left side of the ballpark here to protect it.
The Bandits plan to invest over a million dollars in this Ferris wheel, and it will be paid for with ballpark improvement funds. The team leases the ballpark for $300,000 a year, but part of the lease requires the city to put that money back into regular maintenance of the stadium.
The plan right now is for the Bandits to put the money in up front, then the city will pay the team back over five years with some of those funds to bring this new attraction to the Quad Cities.
"There's no amusement park anywhere nearby, there's no place you can have that kind of theme park experience," QC River Bandits Owner Dave Heller says, "What we're going to do is take a gorgeous ballpark and blend it with some aspects of a theme park."
The plan got the levee commission's endorsement Wednesday afternoon, it will go to city council Wednesday night where they're hoping to approve the lease amendment.
If that passes we could see all those attractions here as soon as this June.
