Well, it actually looks like he will build it, and they will come.
The 193 acres of Iowa farmland featured in the 1989 film Field of Dreams officially sold for $3.4 million to Go the Distance Baseball LLC, an investment group led by Chicago-area couple Mike and Denise Stillman and featuring Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs.
The five-time American League batting champ -- whose celebrity has reached mythical proportions in recent years as a result of his beer-drinking prowess, dance moves at Oklahoma City Thunder games and lion-killing ways on safari in Africa -- and his fellow investors plan to begin construction on a massive youth sports complex called All-Star Ballpark Heaven this spring and will host tournament games as soon as 2014.
However, local landowners filed a petition in Iowa District Court in hopes of halting the development, citing "irreparable harm," and proceedings on that matter begin next week, according to a Dubuque Telegraph-Herald report.
Previous owners Don and Becky Lansing originally listed the property for $5.4 million two years ago, according to the Des Moines Register.
“Certainly this is a momentous time for both Donnie and I,” Becky Lansing said Tuesday through a news release. “We have been preparing for this sale for a few years, and our family, including Donnie’s sister Betty Boeckenstedt, will continue to be a part of the movie site through the transition with the new owners and, likely, beyond."
Over the past year, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and the Dyersville, Iowa City Council approved $21.6 million in tax breaks for the youth sports complex, which will include 12 baseball fields and cost an estimated $38 million.
As a result, the local landowners filed their petition in court. In response, a countersuit has been filed against them for potentially interfering with those tax incentives.
No word on whether Boggs will invoke Kevin Costner's character from Field of Dreams in court: "This is my corn. You people are guests in my corn."
