Savannah Bananas History: From Empty Stadium to National Phenomenon

The Savannah Bananas did not begin with packed stadiums, viral dances or millions of fans waiting for tickets.

They began with an empty ballpark and people saying the project wouldn’t work.

No internet.

No phone lines.

No office furniture.

And very few people who believed the idea would work.

Today, the Savannah Bananas are known for combining competitive baseball with dancing, comedy, music and nonstop fan interaction. Their rise, however, began years before Banana Ball became a national phenomenon.

It started when Jesse and Emily Cole saw a nearly empty Grayson Stadium and imagined what it could become.

How Jesse and Emily Cole discovered Grayson Stadium

The path to Savannah began in 2014, when Jesse Cole proposed to Emily during the final game of the season for their former team in Gastonia, North Carolina.

The proposal included fireworks, a sold-out crowd and enough entertainment to delay the start of the game.

Afterward, Emily planned a trip to Savannah.

During that visit, the couple went to Grayson Stadium on a warm summer night. The weather was nearly perfect, but the old ballpark was almost completely empty.

Rather than seeing only an outdated stadium, the Coles saw an opportunity.

Jesse called the commissioner of the summer collegiate league and said that if the existing Savannah team ever left, he wanted to bring a team to the city.

A few months later, that opportunity arrived.

Why Grayson Stadium mattered

The existing professional baseball organization wanted a new stadium, but many people in Savannah believed historic Grayson Stadium should be preserved.

The ballpark represented an important part of the city’s baseball history.

The Coles proposed something different from traditional minor league baseball.

Their plan was built around affordable family entertainment, fan interaction and a willingness to try ideas that other teams would never consider.

City representatives visited a game in Gastonia, saw the atmosphere for themselves and agreed to give the group an opportunity in Savannah.

That was when the difficult work began.

The Savannah Bananas started in a storage room

When Jesse and Emily Cole arrived at Grayson Stadium with team president Jared Orton and several young staff members, the building had been emptied.

There was no equipment.

There were no phone lines.

There was no internet.

There were barely usable offices.

The new team began working from a storage room with a picnic table.

The challenge was not merely preparing a baseball team. Almost no one in Savannah knew who the new operators were, what they planned to create or why the community should trust them.

Many people expected them to become the next group to fail at the stadium.

The team sold one season ticket in two months

The early response was brutal.

The organization held a launch event, but only about 100 people attended.

During its first two months, the team sold only one season ticket.

Sponsorships were difficult to secure.

Fans questioned whether summer collegiate baseball could replace professional baseball in Savannah.

By January, the organization’s bank account had been overdrawn.

Jesse and Emily Cole decided to sell their home, empty their savings and move into an apartment in Savannah with an air mattress.

They went all in on the team before knowing whether the city would support it.

Why the team was named the Savannah Bananas

Everything began changing on February 25, 2016.

That was the day the team announced its new name:

The Savannah Bananas.

Other names had been considered, including more traditional ideas connected to Savannah’s history.

But the organization believed it needed something dramatically different.

“Savannah Bananas” was playful, unusual and impossible to ignore.

The reaction was immediate.

Some people loved it.

Many others hated it.

Critics called the name embarrassing and predicted the team would become a laughingstock.

But everyone was talking about it.

Within about 30 minutes, the name was trending on Twitter. National media outlets began reaching out. Merchandise orders arrived from around the world.

The name gave the organization something it had struggled to create during its first months in Savannah:

Attention.

The first Savannah Bananas game sold out

The first Savannah Bananas home game was a sellout.

That did not mean opening night went smoothly.

Rain poured before the game.

Fans entered before the stadium was fully ready.

The organization was attempting to feed thousands of people through an all-you-can-eat ticket model it had never operated before.

The game started late, and the Bananas did not play particularly well.

But the crowd stayed.

Thousands of fans waited through the rain and remained in the stadium until the team finally took the field.

That moment convinced the organization it had created something special.

“Every night is someone’s first game”

The Bananas did not want opening night to be their only major event.

Their philosophy was that every game mattered because every night would be someone’s first experience with the team.

That idea became one of the foundations of the organization’s Fans First approach.

Instead of saving the best entertainment for opening day or a holiday weekend, the goal was to create a memorable experience every night.

Players danced.

A breakdancing first-base coach became part of the show.

The Banana Nanas senior dance team performed.

A pep band brought energy into the stadium.

Daisy became the team’s bat dog.

Split became the mascot.

The baseball remained important, but it was surrounded by constant entertainment.

The Savannah Bananas also won on the field

The entertainment did not prevent the team from succeeding competitively.

During their first season, the Savannah Bananas won the Coastal Plain League championship.

That victory helped prove that the organization could provide both quality baseball and a unique fan experience.

The team was not asking fans to choose between competition and entertainment.

It was attempting to deliver both.

How the Savannah Bananas grew beyond Savannah

The team’s popularity expanded through social media.

Fans did not need to attend a game at Grayson Stadium to discover the Bananas.

Videos of dances, promotions and unusual baseball moments spread far beyond Georgia.

Merchandise appeared across the country and eventually around the world.

The organization continued developing new entertainment ideas while asking the same basic question:

How can the fan experience become even better?

That constant experimentation eventually helped create Banana Ball, a faster version of baseball with new rules and a two-hour time limit.

The Savannah Bananas evolved from a summer collegiate team into the centerpiece of a national touring sports and entertainment organization.

Why the Savannah Bananas’ history matters

The modern Savannah Bananas can appear to be an overnight success.

Their history tells a different story.

The organization survived skepticism, financial pressure, poor early ticket sales and public criticism.

Its founders risked their savings and home on a belief that fans wanted something more entertaining, welcoming and memorable from baseball.

The same name that critics once mocked became one of the most recognizable brands in sports entertainment.

The same stadium that sat nearly empty became one of the hardest places in the country to enter without a ticket.

And the team that once sold only one season ticket in two months eventually became a national phenomenon.

The Savannah Bananas were not built because everything went right from the beginning.

They were built because the people behind the organization kept asking how to make the experience more fun—even when almost no one believed them.

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