PLEASANT PRAIRIE — The Lake County Fielders will be playing next year in Illinois and its leaders pledge they’ll be the Kenosha area’s team as well.

The Lake County Fielders — a new Frontier League baseball team in Zion, Ill., owned by actor Kevin Costner — was featured Thursday at a Kenosha Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Fielders’ Assistant General Manager Mike Beauvais believes the team’s fan base includes Kenosha and Racine as well as Lake County in Illinois, tying in the two-state theme by marketing the team’s future stadium as a “diamond on the border.”

That new field is currently under construction, with excavation expected to start soon. The stadium — off Green Bay road and Russell Road in Zion — is scheduled to open in mid-June, meaning the team will likely spend the first few weeks of the 2010 season on the road.

The estimated $17 million stadium will feature 8,000 seats, a video board and a permanent stage for musical performances and other events. Beauvais said Costner has verbally committed to performing with his band, Modern West, in one of the first performances at the field.

Rich Ehrenreich, the team’s president and general manager, claimed overwhelming support of the team so far.

“The response has been 100 percent positive,” Ehrenreich said. “There is no opposition and I think a lot of that is the timing. This is something people really need now.”

Beauvais said early-season ticket requests have been strong in the Kenosha area.

“Not a week goes by in our office without someone calling and mentioning the Kenosha Twins,” Beauvais said of the Minnesota Twins Class-A Team that played at Simmons Field between 1984 and 1992.

Both men said their organization was pledged to win starting on Day 1.

“We don’t want to look like an expansion team, we want to look like a championship team,” Ehrenreich said.

Fran Riordan has been named the club’s inaugural manager. The team’s schedule should be announced by early November and an expansion draft for the team is being held in two weeks.

Lou Molitor, executive director of the Kenosha Chamber, said more Fielders gatherings are likely as the season approaches.

“We feel that this is a great addition to this corridor,” Molitor said. “There are thousands of people that cross the state line and this is a great opportunity.”