With Field of Dreams grant, stadium’s public funding now exceeds total budget

State’s Enhance Iowa Board awarded a $12M sports tourism grant

By Tyler Jett,

Des Moines Register

The Field of Dreams stadium has received another state grant, pushing public funding at the Dyersville site to $57 million.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority's Enhance Iowa Board voted Thursday to give a $12 million sports tourism grant to the project, which aims to build a 3,000-seat stadium at the site that provided the setting for the 1989 film “Field of Dreams.”

The funding follows several grants and other incentives provided over the last two years by state and federal agencies, as well as local governments in Dyersville and Dubuque.

The movie site hosted special MLB games on a temporary field the past two summers, drawing large TV audiences and celebrities like actor Kevin Costner, who starred in “Field of Dreams.”

In April 2022, the economic development group Go the Distance announced its intentions to turn the area into a destination for youth baseball and softball, with plans to spend $80 million on fields, dorms, walking trails, an amphitheater, a field house, an RV park and a 104-room hotel.

Separately, Go the Distance and local governments announced a plan to build the $52 million stadium at the site. The owner of the stadium will be This Iowa Ballpark, a nonprofit controlled by the city of Dyersville, Dubuque County, Travel Dubuque, the Dyersville Economic Development Corp. and Go The Distance.

A spokesperson for Go the Distance, which is helmed by MLB Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, did not respond to a request for comment on the latest state grant. Dyersville City Manager Mick Michel said in an email Thursday the nonprofit will own the stadium — not the privately held Go the Distance.

SOURCES OF MONEY

The latest grant puts the total amount of public financing at the site at $57 million — $5 million more than the stadium's stated budget. In addition to the $12 million awarded Thursday, public funding for the project includes:

• $ 13 million from a tax increment financing district created by the city of Dyersville.

• $ 12.5 million from Destination Iowa, a tourism fund created by Gov. Kim Reynolds using federal COVID-19 relief funds.

• $ 11 million for sewer and water lines from the Water Infrastructure Fund, also created by Reynolds with COVID-19 relief money.

• $ 5 million from Dubuque County.

• $1.5 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration for water and sewer lines.

• $ 1 million from the city of Dubuque.

• $ 1 million from Dyersville.

Dyersville Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Jacque Rahe said the previously awarded funding for water infrastructure does not necessarily count as public funds for the stadium. She said local officials have wanted to run water and sewer lines to the Field of Dreams site since years before the stadium proposal.

At the same time, the city of Dyersville listed the water infrastructure as a line item on the stadium's total budget last year in a grant application to the IEDA.

BAD INVESTMENT?

Some economic development officials criticized the high percentage of public funding for the project last summer, when state officials mulled whether to award Destination Iowa funds for the stadium.

JC Bradbury, a sports economist at Kennesaw State University in suburban Atlanta, said stadiums are poor public investments because residents usually simply move spending from one form of local entertainment to the stadium, rather than increasing total spending.

Bradbury said Thursday he believes the Field of Dreams is an especially bad investment. While local officials say the stadium will draw corporate events and concerts, Bradbury said the remote location will make that a challenge. He added that the project is unsteady because it relies heavily on one annual MLB game, which the league has not guaranteed will continue.

“This is a terrible place to put a stadium,” he said. “It's maybe fine for a temporary venue like they had going. But this is just like building an Olympics stadium without an Olympics there.”

According to a feasibility study funded by Travel Dubuque, the stadium will have a $9.1 million annual economic impact — $6.1 million from the MLB game alone. The study also projected the site would host 62 events a year, such as Minor League Baseball games, corporate functions and baseball “fantasy camps” for adults.

Local officials have defended the use of public financing for the project, with Dubuque Mayor Brad Cavanaugh calling the site “magical” last year. “We've got to find a way to draw people in and show them why we're so proud to live here,” he told the Register in August. “And the Field of Dreams does that.”