DYERSVILLE, Iowa — Dick Vaske describes himself as a “baseball guy,” though he doesn’t swear allegiance to any particular team.

“It’s just a good game, starting in the Little League all the way up to the Major League,” said Vaske, of Dyersville, on Wednesday.

While he said he believes the festivities surrounding the Major League Baseball game that will be held next week at the Field of Dreams will be good for his community, he’s not planning to take part.

“I’m not sure I’m going to move out of the house,” he said. “My wife and I have six kids, and some are coming into town, but we’re just going to watch the game on TV.”

The highly anticipated game day is now only one week away, with the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees set to play on Thursday, Aug. 12, in an 8,000-seat stadium adjacent to the movie site. Two days’ worth of related Beyond the Game festivities are also set to take place throughout Dyersville starting Wednesday, Aug. 11.

Game day also comes after a year of waiting. The game and its related festivities initially were scheduled for 2020 but nixed last year because of COVID-19.

Steve Gulick, of Dyersville, said Wednesday that everyone in town is looking forward to the game-day-related events, and he feels the attention will benefit the community. He noted that he will have to work during most of the game-related events.

“We hope it becomes an annual event,” he said. “And anything we do, we’ll do better next time since we’ve been through it.”

Gulick added that the prospective number of people expected in town is “going to be an issue,” but he feels that the town has prepared the best it can for the large crowds.

Vaske also expressed amazement regarding the potential number of people that could descend on his hometown.

“When you think about Dyersville, it’s a small town. The population could more than triple (during game day),” he said.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Dyersville’s population was a little more than 4,300 as of 2019, the most-recent data available.

Rob Leick, who lives in Dubuque but works at FarmTek in Dyersville, said several of his colleagues have signed up to volunteer to help with the city’s festivities, a move he also still was considering in order to be part of the “exciting” and “historic” occasion.

He added that he was impressed with the stadium’s infrastructure when he went out to the site for work. FarmTek is constructing an 85-foot-by-400-foot fabric building at the Field of Dreams to use as a utility space or a place to go during inclement weather.

Leick said he is curious to see how the increase of visitors coming for the game will affect the Dyersville business community.

“It’ll be interesting to see how much of a tourist boost there is,” he said. “It’s a good way to have a quick influx of a lot of money.”

One week ahead of the game, the iconic Field of Dreams continued to draw visitors — just as it has for more than three decades.

Terry and JoAnne Marks, who live outside of St. Louis, Mo., spent Wednesday touring the Field of Dreams, decked out in St. Louis Cardinals gear. They also went through the If You Build It exhibit, which explores the making of the 1989 film and the tourist site.

The couple said they wanted to go on a small getaway for the week, and seeing the Field of Dreams for the first time was on the top of their list when coming through the area.

They added that they were lucky they came just in time to tour the site, as the Field of Dreams will be closed all of next week because of the game.

“It was just really neat to see,” Terry Marks said. “When we were walking out, I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve got a tear coming out of my eye.’ We’ve seen the movie many times.”