{"id":185540,"date":"2025-07-06T09:43:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T09:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/185540\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T09:43:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T09:43:21","slug":"why-the-savannah-bananas-not-the-dallas-cowboys-are-americas-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/185540\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Savannah Bananas \u2014 not the Dallas Cowboys \u2014 are America’s Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAVANNAH, Ga. \u2014 It\u2019s hours before first pitch at historic Grayson Stadium, and a swirl of strange and disconnected activity covers the field. Down the right-field line, two ballplayers in banana-yellow jerseys are getting loose, firing easy warm-up tosses at each other with more velocity than you\u2019ve ever thrown anything in your life. At the netting behind home plate, a young girl holds up a sign proclaiming in multicolored lettering that she\u2019s here to celebrate her \u201c9th b-day.\u201d Overhead, speakers play a rotating sequence of singalong songs \u2014 \u201cShout,\u201d \u201cYMCA,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019.\u201d So far, a normal enough scene at a lazy-summer minor-league ballpark.<\/p>\n

But look in another direction, and you\u2019ll see two players rehearsing a complicated handstand-into-a-faceplant onto air mattresses. Near the visiting dugout, two players are standing in front of an iPhone on a tripod, pressing play on a video and mimicking the dance moves onscreen, again and again. Out by home plate, a dozen players are following a choreographer\u2019s moves, kicking, dipping, twisting and spinning as the Black Eyed Peas\u2019 \u201cImma Be\u201d plays overhead.<\/p>\n

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This is Bananaland, and strange as it seems, this is now the territory of conquerors.<\/p>\n

You probably know the basics of the Savannah Bananas, the minor-league team-turned-traveling extravaganza that combines baseball with theater, sport and performance art colliding in a frenetic, high-energy show. Built by owners Jesse and Emily Cole on the bones of a collegiate summer league, the Bananas play \u201cBanana Ball,\u201d a version of baseball with its own set of rules \u2014 whoever scores the most runs in an inning gets a point, for instance, and if a fan catches a foul ball, the batter is out. The Bananas have starred in documentaries, sold out minor-league stadiums, even hosted an ocean cruise. And they\u2019ve almost certainly turned up on your social media feed, with players dancing to \u201cThe Greatest Showman\u201d or \u201cThunderstruck\u201d in between pitches.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re for the fans, and fans come for an escape from everything. We don\u2019t have a political ideology. We don\u2019t have a religious ideology. We\u2019re just Bananas, you know. We\u2019re here to make people happy.<\/p>\n

Zack Frongillo<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the line, though, the Bananas broke containment. They graduated from minor-league parks to major-league venues, selling out legendary ballparks such as Fenway Park and Camden Yards. During a recent weekend in Los Angeles, Bananas tickets sold on the secondary market for more<\/a> than tickets to an actual Dodgers-Yankees World Series rematch. And now, this cavalcade of dancing goofballs has leveled up again, selling out NFL stadiums. Banana Ball has invaded places such as Tampa, Nashville and Charlotte, selling out all the way up to the upper-deck light fixtures.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to wonder how in the world the Bananas could draw tens of thousands of people to a football stadium to watch baseball \u2026 provided, that is, you\u2019ve never seen the Bananas in person. If your entire experience with the Bananas is a steady stream of goofy dances on your feed, it\u2019d be easy to slag off the entire enterprise as silly and inconsequential \u2014 and, this being 2025, many social media cranks have done just that<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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But look a little deeper. We\u2019re in an era in which major sports franchises, in their perpetual quest to improve profitability and valuation, now treat their fans as either perpetual ATMs or irrelevant nuisances. It\u2019s damn near impossible to follow your favorite team on a daily basis without shelling out hundreds in streaming service subscription costs. Professional athletes are more walled-off than ever before from their fans, throwing crumbs of social-media postings while remaining resolutely distant. Arrogant, angry blather dominates sports media, the strongest remaining connection between teams and their fans. At every turn, teams, athletes and media all exploit fans\u2019 love and devotion for their own petty, selfish, short-sighted, profit-taking ends. It\u2019s never been more expensive to be a fan, and it\u2019s never been less fulfilling, either.<\/p>\n

Is it any wonder, then, that a group of goofballs who are clearly enjoying themselves has found an unexpected connection with fans? Everyone else, it seems, has lost the plot on what sports ought to be: a diversion and an inspiration. By both happy accident and deliberate design, the Bananas have stepped into this void left behind by misguided major professional sports leagues \u2026 and they\u2019re TikTok-dancing all the way to the bank.<\/p>\n

\"Boston,<\/p>\n

The Savannah Bananas do a line dance on the field at Fenway Park.<\/p>\n

(Boston Globe via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a “hack journalist goes to small-town ballpark in search of a vanished America\u201d story, but if it were, Grayson Stadium would be an ideal starting point. Nestled among long avenues of oaks draped with Spanish moss, the park has hosted everyone from Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth \u2014 who beat the Georgia Teachers College 15-1 here back in 1935 \u2014 to John Smoltz and Chipper Jones.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGrayson’s great, because this is our home,\u201d says Andy Archer, a surfer-turned-pitcher for the Bananas. (Every player here has a wild backstory.) \u201cThis is where we get recharged, this is where the game of Banana Ball was created, this is where the most intimate interactions with fans are, because this is our smallest venue.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a hell of a humblebrag, but it also happens to be true. About 5,000 fans will pack Grayson on this warm night in late June, chattering, stomping, eating and drinking their way through two hours of gameplay. Some of them will be dialed in to the game, some of them will be more focused on their nachos, but all of them are going to get an experience unlike anything else in sports right now.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come here to see if I can understand how the Bananas are building deep fan connections while other franchise fan connections are fraying, expanding their tent while other teams are plotting ever-more-complex ways to soak their existing customers. And it all starts with the free food.<\/p>\n

We could raise prices, but \u2026 why? If we can build a sustainable company and take care of people, then that\u2019s enough for us.<\/p>\n

Bananas co-owner Emily Cole<\/p>\n

Yes, free. Augusta National justifiably gets praise for its $1.50 pimento cheese sandwiches, and the Atlanta Falcons have a fan-friendly menu that lets you fill up on gameday essentials for about $10 a head. But the Bananas have them both beat; every ticket entitles you to as many Cokes, hot dogs, burgers, chicken sandwiches and cookies as you can cram down. (Ice cream, alcoholic beverages and other items actually do require payment, but a reasonable one.)<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe would rather people feel like they\u2019re getting just outrageous value, and tell others about that, than try to nickel-and-dime them in the short term, and they feel like, ‘Ugh, I just don\u2019t know if I could do that ever again,’\u201d team president Jared Orton says.<\/p>\n

That little tweak \u2014 fold the food into the price of a $35 ticket \u2014 is part of what\u2019s making the Bananas so popular. Consciously or not, the Bananas have become a de facto antidote to so much of what modern American professional sports have become \u2014 money-focused, arrogant, distant, corporate. Sure, you may not be a big fan of a pitcher dancing to \u201cTime of My Life\u201d after a strikeout, but you\u2019ve got to admit \u2026 it\u2019s a lot better than paying $18 for a beer after getting nailed for $40 in ticket service fees. (That $35 ticket is the total price, by the way. Fees included. You\u2019re welcome.)<\/p>\n

Of course, the free food only goes so far. The Bananas have to deliver on the field as well, and that\u2019s where they\u2019ve cracked the sports-entertainment code. The players on the Bananas \u2014 and their \u201crival\u201d teams, the Party Animals, Tailgaters and Firefighters \u2014 are ballplayers first, entertainers second.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat makes the game of Banana Ball pretty strong is that it\u2019s rooted in baseball players,\u201d says Danny Hosley, a former college ballplayer who left a masters program to suit up for the Bananas. \u201cIf you just got a bunch of entertainers to come out here and jazz everybody with all this stuff, to a baseball fan, it would just [be], ‘I don\u2019t want to watch that, it\u2019s not real baseball.’\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t fake a fastball. And you can\u2019t script a home run. The run-of-show bits \u2014 and there are so, so many throughout the two-hour game \u2014 don\u2019t get off the ground if the players fail to commit and then don’t execute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game changes a little bit, but ultimately, there\u2019s a guy on the mound trying to get you out, and you\u2019re trying to take the guy deep,\u201d says Jake Skole, one of the black-and-pink-suited Party Animals. \u201cThere\u2019s still the competitiveness there, which is cool, and at my age [33], we get to put on a uniform and compete every day. \u2026 It\u2019s the best part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skole is perhaps the best example of what the Bananas offer to potential players. He\u2019s a former first-round draft pick of the Texas Rangers<\/a> \u2014 he was picked a few spots after Bryce Harper and Manny Machado \u2014 who later played college football in the late 2010s at Georgia. (He was part of the team that was on the wrong end of Alabama\u2019s second-and-26 national title.) He jumped at the chance to join the Bananas family, even though he admits to some trepidation early on.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen I first showed up and we were walking into rehearsals, I\u2019m like, \u2018Rehearsals?\u2019 I\u2019m still not the best dancer on the team, but I\u2019m more open to getting goofy and doing things,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to lose a bit of your seriousness when it comes to some preparation, understanding that in one of your four at-bats, there might be a ball on fire coming your way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Boston,<\/p>\n

The Savannah Bananas greet fans under the grandstands of Fenway Park before the game.<\/p>\n

(Boston Globe via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

That hypothetical \u201cball on fire\u201d is the second element of the Bananas\u2019 talent + entertainment equation, and it\u2019s a key reason the Bananas have eclipsed the current statistically driven game in the key metric of \u201cfun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pro baseball swung so deep into the realm of analytics \u2014 multiple pitching changes, interminable at-bats, fielding shifts \u2014 that the sport needed a fundamental come-to-Jesus moment to save baseball from itself.<\/p>\n

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The Bananas understand that baseball fans don\u2019t come to a game to watch dueling executions of probabilities. They come to the ballpark to see dingers and strikeouts, executed by players who look like they actually enjoy playing a kids\u2019 game for money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes a good Banana Ball player is, in a weird way, the ability to compartmentalize the entire experience,\u201d Orton says. \u201cThe ability to be great on the field, off the field, with fans, with kids, create content, be great on video, be willing to not take yourself too seriously but still take your craft very seriously in what you do. That’s what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That balance \u2014 being serious about having fun \u2014 is at the heart of the Bananas experience. From the moment the ropes drop \u2014 and that literally happens, the team drops ropes to welcome in its first fans \u2014 you\u2019re in the center of nonstop spectacle, everything from a New Orleans-style second-line march to a receiving line of players for every fan entering the park to singalongs in the courtyard in front of the stadium \u2026 and that\u2019s all before the first pitch.<\/p>\n

Once the game begins \u2026 strap in, friend, because you\u2019re in for a ride. The Bananas have stripped down every element of the current sporting experience to the studs and rebuilt it with a new emphasis on the fan. Games are 120 fully packed minutes, no more. Costs are up-front and obvious. Parking and concessions, at least at Grayson, are fixed, controlled and cheap-to-free. The players are fully committed at every moment, whether they\u2019re on the field or right there in the stands next to you. There aren\u2019t long, dull TV timeouts or interminable video reviews. There\u2019s no advertising on the walls at Grayson. The focus is entirely on the production in front of you \u2014 the production you\u2019ve paid for once, so there\u2019s no need to keep squeezing you for more.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s all literally like a live-action TikTok scroll. There\u2019s barely time to take in one moment before another bit of spectacle comes rushing in. For example: Major-league ballplayers have one walkup song playing as they approach the plate. Bananas players will have three or four different songs playing while they\u2019re at bat. You get started singing along to one tune, and bang, here comes another right after it. The entire experience is whiplash-quick and frantic, but then so\u2019s a roller coaster, and nobody boards one of those expecting a leisurely ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking inspiration from WWE, Cirque du Soleil, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok,\u201d says Bananas entertainment director Zack Frongillo. \u201cWe\u2019re being very intentional, watching what people are enjoying and figuring out how to take that and implement it onto a baseball field. \u2026 As long as we can move fast and jump on trends, it\u2019s super-easy for our creative muscles to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s of-the-moment celebrations include references to the Jell-O shot competition at the Men’s College World Series and the notorious escaped Tennessee zebra. (A Party Animals player dressed as a zebra scampers across the infield between innings before being swept up in a net and carried back to the dugout.)<\/p>\n

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Throughout the entire chaotic endeavor, in-uniform players from both teams make their way into the stands, shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for selfies as the game goes on behind them. There\u2019s a brief recognition of the military \u2014 players in the stands shake servicemembers\u2019 hands \u2014 but the Bananas\u2019 focus is decidedly apolitical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re for the fans, and fans come for an escape from everything,\u201d Frongillo says. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a political ideology. We don\u2019t have a religious ideology. We\u2019re just Bananas, you know. We\u2019re here to make people happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s OK to cast a cynical eye at that; in an era defined by for-us-or-against-us, we\u2019re all suspicious of anyone who proclaims to stand outside it all. But that\u2019s our fault, not the Bananas; there really was a time in this country when we didn\u2019t run every single public or social interaction through an is-it-OK-to-like-this? political lens. The Bananas are, in that sense, a throwback, and it\u2019s clear that fans are reacting positively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we try to do is bring in people who every single person in the audience can look at and say, ‘I aspire to be that person,’\u201d Emily Cole says. \u201cMaybe for the little girls, it’s Princess Potassia [the princess of Bananaland], right? Maybe for a young middle or high schooler who plays the tuba, maybe they’re watching the Bananas Pep Band. For dad, maybe he\u2019s watching the Mananas, the Dad Bod Cheer Squad, and he\u2019s like, ‘Someday I\u2019m going to be out there with them.’ For grandma, maybe she\u2019s watching the Banana Nanas and saying, ‘That\u2019s who I aspire to be.’ \u2026 Regardless of your age or your background or your interests, there should be something at our shows that will make you excited and make you want to go meet that person.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That connectivity \u2014 the bond between performer and audience, between player and fan \u2014 is at the heart of the Bananas experience, a bond that simply can\u2019t exist on opposite sides of a phone screen, or at the end of an algorithm. Not only that, but the players seem like they\u2019re having a heck of a lot of fun, too. They fist-bump fans upon arrival to the park, they pose for pics, they sign anything and everything put in front of them. In a world where so many Baby Kobes are trying so hard to look hard<\/a>, that openness and willingness to engage on the fans\u2019 level isn\u2019t just refreshing \u2026 it\u2019s necessary.<\/p>\n

\"Jun<\/p>\n

A sold-out Bank of America Stadium sports a baseball diamond during the exhibition game between the Savannah Bananas and the Party Animals. Nearly 150,000 fans showed up for two games at the stadium where the Carolina Panthers play.<\/p>\n

(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect \/ Reuters)<\/p>\n

Which brings us around to those massive NFL stadiums. Pretty much the only element of the Bananas experience that\u2019s more difficult for the average fan than a \u201creal\u201d baseball game is the actual purchase of tickets. There\u2019s a waiting list and a lottery and a whole lot of hope and prayer involved \u2026 and for a team that prides itself on delivering a reliably enjoyable experience to its fans, that\u2019s a real chokepoint.<\/p>\n

The departure from Savannah was a necessity for the Bananas to keep serving their legions of fans. Grayson has a capacity of only 5,000, and with a waiting list of 3 million, the math wasn\u2019t mathing. The calendar also works against the team; August in Savannah is not a delightful time. So on the road they went.<\/p>\n

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The Bananas began with trips to Mobile, Alabama, and then some spring training facilities. They scaled up to major-league stadiums, and now, as of 2025, they\u2019re scheduled to hit 17 major-league stadiums and four football stadiums, taking a crew of 220 on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal was never, \u2018We want to play in football stadiums,\u2019\u201d Emily Cole says. \u201cWhat it comes down to for us, and what it will always start with is, \u2018What is fans first?\u2019 That is our guiding light, that is our northern star. That is how we try to answer every question or friction point that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a rock-solid philosophy in theory, but how exactly do you put fans first when you\u2019re looking at a three- or four-tiered football stadium? Simple: You take the show to the fans, no matter where they are in the house. Cast members \u2014 Emily\u2019s term \u2014 will rotate in and out of the lineup and into the stands. Pitchers finished with their stint on the mound will head into the crowd to present roses to girls, dance with kids, bro it up with the bros. All the while, there\u2019s still the game happening on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can still be a highly competitive, highly talented game with the trick plays, the showmanship, the excitement,\u201d Orton says. \u201cBut also the person in Section 421 or whatever still gets a fantastic experience, still gets to see some of the characters face-to-face in their section, still gets to get a few autographs, still gets to sing and dance and laugh as much as the person sitting in Section 101 right behind home plate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Every Bananas date through the end of August \u2014 when they\u2019ll visit the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 PNC Field \u2014 is sold out. The demand is there, so how much longer will the Bananas hold off the forces of capitalism? How much longer can this experiment in fan service continue? For heaven\u2019s sake, how much longer will they give away free food at Grayson?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people every single day who reach out and say, \u2018You guys are crazy. Your tickets should be triple the price they are,\u2019\u201d Cole says, laughing. \u201cWhen you have over 3 million people on a wait list, the demand is there, you could say. We could raise prices, but \u2026 why? If we can build a sustainable company and take care of people, then that\u2019s enough for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the growth is coming. Starting next year, the Bananas will add two more teams, bringing the total to six \u2026 meaning there are enough teams to create a full-on Banana Ball League, with three games happening simultaneously in different cities around the country. Beyond that, the Bananas are looking to prepare the next generation with Banana Ball camps, plus there\u2019s the Banana Cruise, plus \u2026 who knows?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where we\u2019re going to be in three years,\u201d Cole says, \u201cbecause it probably hasn\u2019t even been thought of yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One element she promises won\u2019t become a part of the Bananas\u2019 future: external funding and all the strings attached thereto.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing in outside investment is just not on the horizon for us. It\u2019s not in the plans, and we don\u2019t want it to be,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd if that means maybe not taking a certain step a certain year because you need more capital, then that\u2019s OK with us. We would rather grow more slowly and more intentionally than bringing in outside dollars, because at that point, we feel like we would be answering to somebody besides the fan. We\u2019d be answering to the shareholder or to the investor.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Still, perhaps one day fans will decide they\u2019ve seen enough of the Bananas\u2019 spectacle. Perhaps Jesse and Emily will sell to an owner who cuts a corner here and there. Perhaps the allure of private investment will become too strong to resist. Perhaps what makes the Bananas special will be sacrificed in favor of what makes the Bananas money.<\/p>\n

And perhaps not. There\u2019s no law that says every American success story has to end by selling out the fan \u2014 it sure seems that way, yes, but there actually isn\u2019t a law \u2014 so maybe the Bananas are showing a new way for teams to connect with fans.<\/p>\n

On this night, the Party Animals pretty thoroughly outplay the home team, but thanks to the rules of Banana Ball, the Bananas are still in this right to the end \u2026 when they lose 3-2. It\u2019s their fourth loss in five games, further proof that this isn\u2019t a pre-scripted show against a Harlem Globetrotters-style weak opponent.<\/p>\n

The fans file out into the Savannah night, some clutching souvenir yellow Banana baseballs, some wearing brand-new Bananas merch, at least one still snacking on a garbage-can lid full of nachos. I get to my car and, despite the throngs of thousands filing out of the stadium into the narrow streets, I\u2019m on the open road barely a minute later.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s just one more fan-friendly magic trick in a night full of them.<\/p>\n