Corn products brand Dekalb has agreed a deal to sponsor Major League Baseball’s Field of Dreams event, which will take place in Dyersville, Iowa on Thursday.
Dekalb will serve as the official corn seed of the event, which will be contested by the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs at a temporary 8,000-seat ballpark.
The Field of Dreams event is inspired by the iconic film of the same name, with the game taking place at the Iowa farm where the movie was shot.
In the 1989 film, the lead character, played by Kevin Costner, responds to a mysterious voice in the cornfields that says ‘if you build it, he will come’, and creates a baseball field at his farm. Ghosts of baseball legends from the past later emerge from the corn to play.
This week’s event will mark the second edition of the Field of Dreams following the success of the inaugural game in August 2021. Last year’s event was the first major-league game ever played in the state of Iowa.
Since 1989, the Lansing Family Farm, which was used in the Universal Pictures movie, has been a popular tourist attraction, and is now known as the Field of Dreams Movie Site. In 2011, the field was purchased by Denise Stillman and a group of investors with the goal of preserving the Field of Dreams and creating a special place for baseball fans, tournament players and families.
Stillman, who passed away in 2018, began working with MLB in 2015 and the first Field of Dreams event had originally been scheduled for August 13, 2020 before it was postponed due to COVID-19. Last year’s inaugural event was watched by nearly six million people on Fox.
As an official sponsor of the event, Dekalb’s corn will surround the playing field during Thursday’s game. A pathway through a cornfield will take fans to the temporary ballpark, which overlooks the famous movie location.
Jamie Horton, brand manager at Dekalb, said: “We are honoured to be the official corn seed of MLB at Field of Dreams. With the Dekalb corn brand’s deep legacy of providing performance to farmers, it only makes sense that these two American classics – baseball and the famous winged ear of corn – come together.”
In May, plans were drawn up to create a permanent Field of Dreams stadium in Dyersville. A non-profit organisation was launched with the aim of raising $50m (£41.4m/€48.9m) to build the venue around the Dyersville site.
