The Savannah Bananas were born from the ashes of a failing baseball franchise and a sport in decline. In less than a decade, this once-obscure collegiate team transformed into a viral phenomenon by reinventing baseball as an all-out entertainment spectacle. 

A jaw-dropping indicator of demand for a team that almost no one wanted to watch back in 2016.

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

By the mid-2010s, America's pastime was in trouble. Baseball games dragged on longer than ever, with average times exceeding three hours for the first time in 2016. The sport was losing fans to faster-paced entertainment. Minor league baseball had it worse. Teams focused on developing players for the majors instead of entertaining local fans, and the results were devastating.

Attendance was collapsing. After peaking at 43 million fans in 2007, minor league attendance had dropped to its worst levels in 14 years by 2018. Nearly two-thirds of teams saw attendance decline that year. Small-town clubs were hemorrhaging money. When 23-year-old Jesse Cole took over the Gastonia Grizzlies (his first swing at owning a baseball franchise) in North Carolina, he inherited a disaster: only 200 fans per game, $268 in the bank, and losses topping $150,000 annually.

Teams tried quick fixes like cheap beer nights and fireworks to fill seats, but gimmicks couldn't solve the core problem. The product was broken. When Savannah, Georgia lost its longtime minor league team in 2015 due to poor attendance and lack of stadium funding, it became clear that traditional baseball wasn't sustainable at this level.

Cole's insight was radical: the real competition wasn't other teams, it was boredom. Fans weren't leaving because their team lost. They were leaving because the experience wasn't fun. In Gastonia, he spent a decade experimenting with turning games into shows. "People started to say, 'I'm coming to the show. I'm coming to have fun,'" he recalled.

In 2016, Jesse and his wife Emily moved to Savannah, sold their house, and emptied their savings to launch a new team with one mission: make baseball fun again. They named their company Fans First Entertainment. That philosophy would guide everything that followed.

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The Savannah Bananas threw out baseball's playbook and created Banana Ball, a fast, fan-focused version built for pure entertainment. Foul balls caught by fans count as outs. Bunting is banned. Step out of the batter's box? That's a strike. Each inning is its own contest, and games cap at two hours. Players dance between pitches, perform tricks, and pitch on stilts. A senior dance team called the Banana Nanas performs alongside a pep band and a breakdancing first-base coach. Every game feels more like a circus than baseball.

The business model was just as radical. The Bananas stripped all ads from their stadium and made tickets all-inclusive. One flat price covers seats and unlimited food and drinks—no fees, no upcharges. Home stadium tickets cost $35. Tour stops run $40-$60, often reselling for hundreds more on secondary markets. Every decision serves fans first. When the team mistakenly issued 45,000 extra tickets in early 2025, they honored the error by offering free tickets to future games, absorbing over $7 million in potential revenue. They even rejected a $1 million bulk ticket order to prevent scalping.

The Bananas built their empire like a media company. Every trick play and dance routine gets filmed, posted, and shared. The team now commands over 15 million social media followers across platforms and more TikTok followers than all 30 MLB teams. Viral content converts casual viewers into paying customers. The flywheel spins faster: entertaining games create viral content, viral content builds fans, and fans pack stadiums nationwide.

What started as a struggling summer league team is now a sports entertainment juggernaut. After outgrowing the Coastal Plain League, the Savannah Bananas went national with their Banana Ball tour. In 2023, they sold out Clemson's 81,000-seat football stadium for two consecutive nights. In 2024, 148,000 fans packed Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte across two games, generating $38.6 million in economic impact for the city. They've sold out Yankee Stadium. Back in Savannah, every home game has been a sellout for years.

The numbers are staggering. The waitlist now tops 3.5 million people, enough to fill their 4,000-seat home stadium for decades. The once-failing team generates over now carries a valuation near $500 million. Jesse Cole, the yellow-tuxedo-wearing founder, has become a sports business celebrity. Yet his stated goal isn't a billion-dollar valuation, it's a billion fans.

Today, the Bananas are more than baseball. They're a social media powerhouse, a touring attraction, and a case study in fan-first business strategy. Their success has investors and leagues asking if a full Banana Ball league could be next. One truth stands clear: by breaking every rule and putting entertainment above tradition, the Bananas proved that joy is a viable growth strategy. In their world, fans always come first, fun drives revenue, and every game is a sellout.

Here are the takeaways you can apply…

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3.5 Million - Fans on the Savannah Banana ticket waitlist

20+ Million - Savannah Banana followers across platforms, giving them a larger digital audience than any MLB team

$38.6M - The economic impact of their two-night stop in Charlotte, with attendance of 148K across both nights

$100+ Million - The Savannah Banana’s 2025 revenue estimate per Forbes

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