Why Jesse Cole Credits Dave Matthews Band With Helping Build the Savannah Bananas

Most fans know Jesse Cole transformed baseball.

Far fewer know that one of the biggest influences behind Banana Ball wasn’t another baseball executive, coach or sports league.

It was Dave Matthews Band.

On the eve of the iconic band’s annual pilgrimage to the Gorge in George, Washington, it seemed fitting to look at the impact Dave Matthews Band has had on the phenomenon that is Banana Ball.

During a recent podcast appearance, the Savannah Bananas founder explained how one of the world’s most successful touring bands helped shape many of Banana Ball’s defining ideas—from streaming games free on YouTube to building the K Club, touring relentlessly and making every live show feel different.

The inspiration wasn’t really about music.

It was about building a community.

How Dave Matthews Band inspired Jesse Cole

When the Bananas decided to leave traditional baseball behind and take Banana Ball across America, they entered dozens of cities where many people had never heard of them.

Instead of waiting for national recognition, Cole believed the experience itself could create the audience.

That philosophy reminded him of Dave Matthews Band.

Long before becoming one of the biggest touring acts in the world, DMB ignored many traditional music-industry expectations. Rather than simply chasing radio hits, the band developed an unmistakable sound featuring instruments such as saxophone and violin, embraced extended live improvisation and built its following in large part by playing show after show.

“They were differentiated by how they made people feel,” Cole explained.

Fans recorded concerts, traded tapes and introduced the music to new listeners.

Cole saw a blueprint.

Why the Savannah Bananas tour like a concert

The Bananas adopted a remarkably similar approach.

Rather than waiting for fans to come to Savannah, they took Banana Ball directly to communities around the country, trusting that unforgettable experiences would generate word-of-mouth growth.

Today, fans record incredible catches, choreographed dances, trick plays, celebrations and unexpected moments before sharing them across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

The technology has changed.

The principle hasn’t.

Create something remarkable enough that people can’t wait to tell someone else about it.

Renae Lipsmeyer understands that phenomenon particularly well. Lipsmeyer is the host of The Space Between Podcast, a fan-focused show devoted to documenting the experiences and stories of the Dave Matthews Band community.

For her, one of the strongest connections between DMB and Banana Ball is the way both turn repetition into anticipation.

“The fans never know what they’re going to get,” Lipsmeyer said. “They never know what they’re going to witness.”

That’s an important distinction.

A fan may have attended 50 Dave Matthews Band concerts or multiple Banana Ball games. Technically, they’re returning to the same form of entertainment.

Experientially, they’re not.

“Even though you’re going to the game or you’re going to the concert, yes, you have done that in general before,” Lipsmeyer said, “but you’ve never seen what they’re about to do today.”

Why Banana Ball games are free on YouTube

Cole also credited Dave Matthews Band with influencing one of Banana Ball’s boldest business decisions.

Instead of placing games behind an expensive paywall, the Bananas continue making many of their broadcasts available free on YouTube.

“We’re leaving millions of dollars on the table because we believe we want to share this with people,” Cole said.

At first glance, giving away premium content appears to sacrifice revenue.

In reality, it can create something potentially more valuable: discovery.

Every free broadcast becomes an opportunity to introduce Banana Ball to future fans—people who may later buy tickets, join the K Club, purchase merchandise or bring friends and family to a game.

It isn’t the absence of a business strategy.

It is the business strategy.

The K Club and the Dave Matthews Warehouse

Cole also drew a direct comparison between Banana Ball’s K Club and The Warehouse, Dave Matthews Band’s long-running fan association.

The Warehouse gives members priority ticket opportunities, exclusive merchandise and other benefits and experiences.

Banana Ball faces its own extraordinary ticket-demand challenge.

According to Cole, the organization’s ticket waitlist has grown beyond 4.2 million people. To better serve some of its most dedicated supporters, the Bananas launched the K Club several years ago.

Without significant promotion, Cole said membership has already surpassed 40,000 fans, offering benefits including earlier ticket access, exclusive merchandise and special experiences.

Cole’s comparison was simple:

“That’s the Warehouse.”

But Lipsmeyer sees something even bigger happening within communities like these.

“I think that the fandom itself is content,” she said.

That’s an intriguing way to understand both DMB and Banana Ball.

Fans don’t simply consume the entertainment. They travel for it. They dress for it. They meet friends through it. They record it. They talk about it. They post about it. They tell stories about what happened—and then start anticipating the next one.

The audience becomes part of the experience.

When demand exceeds supply, then, the opportunity isn’t simply to sell more tickets.

It’s to build a stronger community.

Why every Banana Ball game is different

Perhaps the biggest DMB influence appears every time the Bananas take the field.

Dave Matthews Band is famous for making every concert unique.

According to the extensive concert history maintained by DMB Almanac, no two Dave Matthews Band setlists have ever been exactly the same. EVER.

Think about that.

After decades of touring and thousands of performances, unpredictability remains part of the product.

Fans can attend multiple shows during the same weekend and experience different setlists, song combinations, arrangements and improvisations.

Cole wants Banana Ball fans to feel that same anticipation.

“We do 10 to 15 brand-new things every single night,” he said.

That philosophy extends throughout the Banana Ball experience.

New dances.

New fan interactions.

New comedy.

New entrances.

New entertainment moments.

Returning fans aren’t rewarded with repetition.

They’re rewarded with surprise.

And that gets directly at Lipsmeyer’s observation about the two fan cultures: people return precisely because they don’t know what they’re about to see.

Even the Banana Band reflects the influence

Cole’s admiration for Dave Matthews Band even reaches the music inside the ballpark.

He said he asked the Banana Band to learn Dave Matthews classics including “Ants Marching” and “Tripping Billies.”

He specifically praised the band’s saxophone player for bringing some of that signature sound into Banana Ball.

It’s a small detail.

But it demonstrates just how deeply the influence runs.

Why the Dave Matthews Band connection matters

Understanding Dave Matthews Band’s influence helps explain many Banana Ball decisions that can look unconventional through the lens of traditional sports.

Why stream games for free?

Why change the show every night?

Why create a members-only community?

Why tour the country like a concert act instead of operating like a conventional baseball team?

Because Jesse Cole isn’t simply trying to build a baseball organization.

He’s building a live entertainment experience and a community around it.

The similarities go well beyond marketing.

Both organizations grew by creating memorable experiences, treating fans as part of the community and trusting that extraordinary moments would spread from one person to another.

Lipsmeyer has a wonderfully concise description for that phenomenon:

“Fan excitement generates fan excitement.”

That’s the flywheel.

A remarkable experience creates an excited fan. The fan tells the story. Someone else becomes curious. That person attends or watches. They have their own experience. Then they tell somebody else.

The audience becomes part of the distribution system without being told to do so.

More than baseball

Cole has often looked beyond sports for inspiration.

Dave Matthews Band may be one of the clearest examples of what happens when an entrepreneur takes lessons from an entirely different industry and adapts them rather than merely copying them.

The Bananas’ national schedule resembles a concert tour.

The K Club has parallels to a music fan community.

Free YouTube broadcasts lower the barrier for someone discovering Banana Ball for the first time.

And the constantly changing live show gives repeat customers a reason to keep coming back.

Most importantly, both organizations share a powerful idea:

The event isn’t merely what happens on the stage or the baseball field.

It’s everything that happens around it—the anticipation, travel, friendships, traditions, surprises and stories people tell afterward.

That’s why Lipsmeyer’s perspective is particularly interesting. Her podcast exists largely to preserve those fan stories within the Dave Matthews Band world.

And increasingly, Banana Ball fans are creating their own versions of them.

That philosophy has helped transform Banana Ball from an unconventional experiment in Savannah into one of America’s most sought-after live entertainment experiences.

As Cole put it during the podcast:

“I get to be a fan. And I want our fans to feel what I get to feel.”

For Banana Ball, that may be the biggest lesson Dave Matthews Band ever taught.

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