Many Americans with an interest in sports might have at least heard of the Savannah Bananas. Viral clips of players doing silly dances filtered through my social feeds and more recently I saw them highlighted way down on the ESPN home page.

But it wasn’t until I actually watched a game on YouTube that I realized how fun they are. And then not until we learned more about their story that made us true BANANA FANS!

The Savannah Bananas are an exhibition barnstorming team from Savannah, Georgia, founded in 2016. They flipped traditional baseball with Banana Ball - a fast-paced, performance-driven format where umpires dance, catchers do backflips, fans catching foul balls count as outs, all wrapped in dance-offs, vaudeville flair, and quirky surprises

They are commonly attributed as the baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters, and my mom thinks they’re like that scene in A League Of Their Own when Dottie adds a little razzle-dazzle to “help the league.”

But unlike the Globetrotters, the Bananas are actually playing competitively to win (obligatory Simpsons clip). And unlike A League Of Their Own, they are playing a different sport (Banana Ball) that has it’s own rules that keeps the game moving quickly and the fans highly involved:

It’s all insane. Just watch a few clips on their TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to get an idea. It’s hard to comprehend that between all the choreographed dances, stilts, and backflips…

… that there’s actually a competitive game being played. These guys are actually really good. At least 24 former Savannah Bananas having signed professional contracts or been drafted into Major League Baseball (MLB) or other independent leagues since the team's inception

In ways, it weirdly reminds us more of Baseketball - the crass 1998 sports satire from the South Park guys who invent a new sport because fans were sick of the money-grubbing in the conventional sports business. FYI - the opening scene is very relevant 27 years later and worth watching.

Probably not broken, but maybe live sports have not have kept up with the times. Baseball is still popular, but it definitely ain’t what it used to be. MLB drew 71 million fans in 2024 - its best in seven years - but average game attendance (29,436) still lags early-2000s highs over 33,000.

And just ask your grandpa if he still feels the magic in a MLB stadium (and get ready to hear a 20 minute story about how Ted Williams hit on your grandma). Or ask a teenager if they’d peel themselves from their phone for 3+ hours to watch a game (and get ready to be eye-rolled).

It’s also gotten expensive and more challenging to be a cohesive pastime bonding generations. Take the NFL, an average “get-in” ticket price is $132 plus $58 in food and beverage per game. 💸 Add in the parking and the giant foam fingers and you got a pricey day. To be clear, live sports won’t disappear anytime soon, but it makes you question if going to a game is truly worth it.

They’ve become extraordinarily successful: in 2023 alone, over 500,000 fans attended games on their Banana Ball World Tour. In a standout 2025 game at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, they drew 81,000 fans. With no ad spend, they've built a 3.6 million‑person waitlist and sell out MLB parks like Fenway, Yankee Stadium, and Angel Stadium, sometimes drawing crowds larger than Dodgers‑Yankees games.

Ticket prices range from about $25 for average games to up to $60 for big events, and fans happily pay for the vibe. The Bananas manage their own ticketing, with no hidden fees. In the early days, Jesse Cole and his team personally called every fan who bought a ticket, delivering handwritten thank-you notes and making genuine human connections. That amounted to “100,000 plus calls” in total.

This also means it’s really hard to get a ticket on the second-hand market. A fan, who has been patiently waiting, is less likely to scalp their ticket. The fans really want to be there.

Unlike marginal tweaks to gameplay (looking at you, pitch clock), Banana Ball reimagines the entire baseball experience - from ticket sales to when you should high-five players. And yet, it still honors the core magic of the game: a bat, a ball, and the drama of contact. The result? A radical reinvention of America’s pastime that somehow (impossibly) delights both TikTok teens and nostalgic curmudgeons who still rue the designated hitter rule.

Banana Ball isn’t just a fun distraction, it’s immersive entertainment. The kind that stains your shirt with mustard, pulls your attention off your phone, and bonds you to your seatmates like you're all in on the same beautiful inside joke. Because at its core, sports (and especially baseball) are a shared emotional (and very human) narrative. We show up to feel something... together. The Bananas get that. It’s not just a game. It's a reason to cheer.

Its a reminder to the sports industry that when JOY becomes the priority and accessibility and connection are baked in, fans don’t just attend. They go bananas. In doing so, they reclaim what sports were always meant to be: a true, collective pastime. The kind that rivals a 1952 Yankees-Dodgers World Series.

Hell Yeah!

Official Bananas’ Instagram and TikTok

Wall Street Journal

Fast Company - includes a breakdown of the revenue model

NY Post - how much fans spend at a Mets or Yankees game

Huddle Up (Substack) - great overview