How an Iowa nonprofit helped bring MLB back to Field of Dreams
Nonprofit Dyersville Events Inc. purchased the Field of Dreams movie site from a group led by hall of famer Frank Thomas in 2024.
DYERSVILLE, Iowa —
Across the corn from the iconic Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville now sits a shiny new permanent stadium. It will host Thursday’s MLB game between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies.
This spectacular, iconic MLB at the Field of Dreams event debuted in 2021 and returned in 2022. At the time, the property was owned by baseball legend Frank Thomas and his business partner.
Following 2022, they began to develop it into a baseball complex. MLB was not able to host the Field of Dreams game during construction.
Two years ago, rising construction costs forced Thomas to sell the property to the nonprofit Dyersville Events Inc. $50 million later, they have the stadium ready to go and the Field of Dreams game is back. Thomas was at the stadium Wednesday to watch his son compete in the high school All-American game. Although he’s no longer the owner and his original grand plan didn’t work out, this is special for ‘The Big Hurt.’
“I had a tear when I drove up today. Spent a lot of time here. Three years. To see everything has gone to plan, really proud of the state. The governor’s office has been great behind this whole project. I’m glad they’re making this a national treasure,” Thomas said. “Dyersville deserves this, Dubuque, all the surrounding areas who have always been supportive of the Field of Dreams. This is a national treasure and I’m really proud of everything.”
With temporary bleachers added for the game, the stadium will seat about 8,000 fans.
“The contractors and everybody that came through on this in the short time they had. It’s really a miracle, to be honest with you,” said Mike Decker, board president for Dyersville Events. “We were building this while design was still going on with the architects. We couldn’t be any prouder of everybody that came together, got this done, helped get the funding and everything put in place so we could complete this project.”
The Twins and Phillies play at 6:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on Netflix.