If you build it, they will come ― so goes a popular adaption of the most famous line from the 1989 film “Field of Dreams.”
On Thursday, May 14, as part of a Bring it Home campaign to ensure that dream comes true, the nonprofit Field of Dreams Movie Site celebrated a donation of $10 million to help underwrite an expansion aimed at making the nonprofit facility a year-round tourism destination.
Gov. Kim Reynolds also said the state will allocate $3 million from its Destination Iowa program, which provides grants for tourism infrastructure.
The announcement of the $10 million gift by Craig and Lisa Breitbach, Andy and Debi Butler and the McCoy Group came in a news conference at the site near Dyersville.
The donation comes ahead of Major League Baseball’s return to Iowa in August after a three-year hiatus due to construction at the site, as well as the first visit there by the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.
“It’s a significant catalyst for the Bring It Home campaign,” said Ellen Goodmann Miller, the campaign coordinator. “This is a major gift and a collective contribution from these legacy partners that is helping to get us closer to the finish line ― even though that’s not a baseball term.”
The Field of Dreams embarked in 2022 on a $120 million expansion aimed at building nine youth baseball and softball fields and providing educational programming, according to the project’s plan. The crown jewel of the Bring It Home campaign is a new, permanent professional ballpark that will open in time for the Aug. 13 Minnesota Twins-Philadelphia Phillies matchup. It replaces the temporary park used for previous MLB games.
Also in the plan are a museum and event center.
The commitment from Craig Breitbach, president of Cedar Rapids’ Cedar Valley Steel, and wife Lisa; Dubuque insurance broker Andy Butler and wife Debi; and the McCoy Group, a Dubuque construction and transportation company, is one of the largest private gifts to the campaign and puts the donors in the running for naming opportunities for the new ballpark, Field of Dreams officials said.
Just a week before the donation was announced, the Northwoods League, a summer collegiate baseball and softball organization with more than 30 teams across the upper Midwest, announced it would make the Field of Dreams its permanent home starting in the 2027 season.
With nearly $50 million in public investments allocated so far to the Field of Dreams, the state is committed to ensuring the site remains a prime attraction for generations, Reynolds said at a news conference. Another roughly $25 million remains to be raised for the Bring It Home campaign.
Reynolds said Iowa “from the very beginning” has recognized the significance of the filming site for the classic movie, starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Amy Madigan, Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster, “not only to our economy but to our identity.”
“The Field of Dreams is more than a movie site,” Reynolds said. “It’s a catalyst for tourism, growth and community pride.”
When was the last MLB game at the Field of Dreams?
The first MLB game at the site featured the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees in 2021. It drew a sellout crowd and featured Costner and the players emerging from a towering cornfield before the first pitch. Nearly 6 million viewers watched the game on TV.
MLB returned to Dyersville in 2022 when the Chicago Cubs played the Cincinnati Reds. The 2022 event also featured a Minor League Baseball game between the Cedar Rapids Kernels and Quad Cities River Bandits.
In attendance at Thursday’s announcement were costumed reenactors depicting the Ghost Players. In the movie, the ghosts of baseball greats appear from the surrounding corn to play on the field that Costner’s character, farmer Ray Kinsella, builds in response to the urgings of a mysterious voice who tells him, “If you build it, they will come.”
Though RAGBRAI has been through Dyersville twice in the 37 years since the movie was made ― most recently in 2007 ― it has never visited the Field of Dreams Movie Site, which until the first MLB game there in 2021 was accessible only via an unpaved road. But the site will serve as the July 25 breakfast stop as the ride makes its way to its final destination, Dubuque, a highlight on a route that RAGBRAI organizers say will celebrate all things American for the United States’ 250th birthday.
Kate Kealey is the growth and development reporter for the Register. Reach her at kkealey@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter at @Kkealey17.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Field of Dreams lands $10M gift, accelerating permanent MLB ballpark
Reporting by Kate Kealey, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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