Naperville Business Lawyer Discusses the Announcement of Field of Dreams MLB Game

Whether you run a small, one-person business or you are on the board of a huge, multi-national commercial entity, it is important for you to be constantly thinking of ways to market your business. If your customer base begins to lose interest, your bottom line will inevitably suffer. This is even true for organizations that dominate their industry—including professional sports leagues with anti-trust exemptions.

As a business law attorney, I am always interested to see how sports leagues such as the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), and Major League Baseball (MLB) find ways to attract and keep the attention of their fans. As a proud resident of the greater Chicago area, I was especially delighted to learn that MLB’s most recent marketing announcement involves one of our hometown teams.

White Sox to Host Yankees in Iowa

Even if you have never seen the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, you are probably familiar with the quote, “If you build it, he will come.” In the film, the line is whispered several times by a disembodied voice, which eventually leads Kevin Costner’s character to turn a cornfield on a working farm into a baseball field, complete with bleachers and stadium lights. As the story moves forward, the field becomes a magical site, where long-dead players from the 1919 Chicago White Sox and others come to play and relive their glory days—no pun intended. The members of the 1919 White Sox—sometimes known as the Black Sox—were banned from baseball for life for throwing the World Series that year.

The movie was both filmed and set in Iowa. The site currently comprises a small ballfield and a farmhouse that is open to paying tourists, but next August, the “Field of Dreams” will look much different.

This week, Major League Baseball announced via Twitter that on August 13, 2020, the Dyersville, Iowa site will host a regular-season game between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees. The league plans to build a temporary 8,000-seat park for the game—which will officially be a White Sox home game—and Fox will have national broadcast rights.

A Unifying Message

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that Major League Baseball “is proud of its history linking generations.” He went to on to say, “We look forward to celebrating the movie’s enduring message of how baseball brings people together at this special cornfield in Iowa.”

According to insiders, the design of the temporary ballpark will be largely an homage to Comiskey Park, the stadium on Chicago’s south side that the White Sox called home from 1910 to 1990. Social media accounts for both teams have expressed excitement over the announcement.

Call a DuPage County Business Lawyer

While you might not be able to afford to build a temporary baseball stadium to facilitate your marketing ideas, there are still many things you can do to expand your company’s visibility. Contact an experienced Naperville business law attorney for guidance. Call 630-756-1160 to schedule a confidential consultation at the Gierach Law Firm today.

Sources:

Major League Baseball

ABC7 Chicago

Travel Iowa