The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds are facing each other in the 2022 Field of Dreams game. But who will play in the 2023 Field of Dreams game?
The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds will be facing each other on Thursday in the MLB Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa. In 2021, the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox faced each other on Thursday, August 12, 2021 in a 9-8 slugfest. The game featured eight home runs, including four from each side but the White Sox prevailed.
But things won’t be the same in 2023.
2023 MLB Field of Dreams Game: Who is playing?
Tommy Birch of The Des Moines Register was the first to report that in 2023, MLB will not be returning to Iowa to play the Field of Dreams game.
MLB Hall of Famer Frank Thomas is one of the partners who bought the site over a year ago. Due to massive construction of the area, MLB won’t be returning in 2023. Thomas and his partners’ plan includes a youth baseball and softball complex and a hotel. The youth complex is set to break ground later this year so that’s, largely, what is preventing baseball from returning in 2023.
However, MLB could return to Dyersville in 2024 and beyond.
According to Birch, future MLB games at the site would likely be a key to its profitability. As Birch says, a “feasibility study funded by Travel Dubuque projected the site would draw 136,000 visitors a year.” It would also create nearly 100 jobs, host 62 events, and generate more than $9 million in investment in the first year after the stadium is built.
Two-thirds of the stadium’s economic impact would come from MLB games there. In other words, for the stadium and the Field of Dreams complex to be profitable, it desperately needs MLB to return there.
For MLB’s marketing, it would be a good thing for them to return to Dyersville and venture off to other areas of the United States and across the globe, in general so, perhaps, they will return in 2024 but it won’t be happening in 2023.
