Lost among the other highlights of Thursday’s “Field of Dreams” game between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds — a projection of long-dead Harry Caray singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” a Reds infielder being airlifted to the hospital because his leg muscle was in danger of swelling so badly it might have to be cut off, okay maybe “highlights” was the wrong word — was the news that earlier in the week, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds had allocated an additional $12.5 million to building a permanent ballpark in the cornfield made famous by zombie Ray Liotta, bringing the total public funding for the project to $45 million:
Reynolds’ $12.5 million allocation comes from Destination Iowa, a $100 million grant program for projects that are supposed to raise the state’s profile and encourage tourism. The governor created the program using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, a March 2021 congressional coronavirus relief bill that channeled billions in funding to state and local governments, including $4.5 billion for Iowa.
Reynolds previously allocated $11 million from the fund to build water and sewer lines to the Field of Dreams stadium site. The U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded another $1.5 million for the same purpose in September.
Locally, Dubuque County has agreed to give $5 million to the stadium project. The city of Dubuque awarded $1 million. Travel Dubuque, a nonprofit largely funded with hotel-motel taxes, gave the stadium $500,000.
In Dyersville, the City Council contributed $1 million. Between two tax breaks for private developers — one already awarded and another in negotiation — the city is poised to contribute another $13 million to the project, Michel said.
That’s a pile of dough, or rather several piles of dough, with the largest pile coming from ARPA, the Biden administration’s bill to send federal money to COVID-cash-strapped state and local governments. Only the feds, as usual, didn’t put a whole lot of strings on how the money could be spent beyond “economic development,” and we all know how local governments tend to interpret that. Other private-sports-related ARPA spending has included $12.5 million for a Hudson Valley Renegades minor-league baseball stadium and $15 million to try to bring 2026 World Cup games to New Jersey, plus probably more examples that we don’t know about because the Treasury Department is doing such a crappy job of providing info on where the money is being spent.
Gov. Reynolds, meanwhile, not to be stopped at building a permanent baseball stadium to honor a movie about teams playing in a cornfield with no permanent baseball stadium, previously gave $6 million in tourism money to NBCUniversal for a TV adaptation of the film — despite the series getting turned down by Peacock, the streaming service that NBCUniversal itself owns. University of Texas-Austin government professor Nathan Jensen told the Des Moines Register that this was an especially awful use of public funds since even if the TV series is made, most of the money will go to film crews flying in from out of state, who will take that money back to California and spend much of it there: “What’s the opposite of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup? Two terrible things, put together.”
