Kevin Cosnter Field of Dreams - H 2012
Universal PicturesNow, that field in northeast Iowa really is heaven.
The plot of land near Dyersville where the classic baseball film Field of Dreams was made has finally been sold. Go the Distance Baseball LLC, an investment group headed up by Mike and Denise Stillman, has bought the farm and baseball diamond for $3.4 million. They plan on constructing All-Star Baseball Heaven, a youth baseball complex with 24 fields and 60 clubhouses around the property, and will preserve the famed field where Kevin Costner and Ray Liotta (as Shoeless Joe Jackson) played catch and took batting practice.
PHOTOS: Hollywood’s Best Baseball Movies
Among the investors is Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, who was on the Boston Red Sox when Costner and James Earl Jones visited Fenway during the film.
“Certainly this is a momentous time for both Donnie and I,” the site’s now-former co-owner, Becky Lansing said in a statement. The farm was in the family of her husband Don Lansing for over 100 years. “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.”
The purchase includes 193 acres of land; work on 12 of the fields is scheduled to begin immediately, with a first tournament tentatively scheduled for 2014. A lawsuit, however, threatens to get in the way of the construction. Several neighbors have sued to stop the sale, saying that it would harm the area, and the case will appear before a judge early this year.
