75 stadiums, 45 states, one vision: Why the Savannah Bananas' next step is their biggest yet

Jesse Cole vividly remembers the early days of owning the Savannah Bananas.

They sold only a handful of tickets in the inaugural season in 2016 as a member of the Coastal Plain League playing as a collegiate summer team. He and his wife sold their house, emptied their savings accounts and slept on an air bed to start the team. When they left traditional baseball in 2022 and started “Banana Ball,” Cole expressed that they had a “big vision to create something special.”

The doubters expressed an opposite view.

“We were told it would fail. People said they would never come to it because it’s not real baseball,” Cole told ESPN. “We’ve been criticized every step of the way. But you know what I remember, what I focus on is the fans that love it.”

After playing in front of over 2 million of those fans and selling out 17 Major League Baseball stadiums in 2025, Banana Ball is set up for its biggest move yet.

Cole announced Thursday on ESPN2 that the inaugural season of the Banana Ball Championship League is coming to 75 stadiums, 45 states and will be played in front of 3.2 million fans next year.

Banana Ball is headed to 14 MLB parks and 10 football stadiums, including two with a capacity of over 100,000 — Texas A&M’s Kyle Field (102,000) and Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium (101,000). They’ll even play at Billings, Montana’s Dehler Park, which will host the smallest crowd in Banana Ball history at 3,000.

The Saints’ Superdome and Patriots’ Gillette Stadium will also be part of a tour that is set to be the biggest yet.

Cole, who is the founder of Fans First Entertainment and owner of each team in the league (Bananas, Firefighters, Party Animals and Tailgaters), revealed the new steps are all about bringing the game to a broader audience.

“When you have so much demand and excitement, we want to be able to go to the biggest stadiums, but also to the smallest stadium,” Cole said. “We want to play everywhere. We want to take this where anyone in this country can drive to a game within four to five, six hours max.”

The league also announced two new teams Thursday: the Loco Beach Coconuts and the Indianapolis Clowns (which carries the name of the former Negro Leagues team). Each club will have a newly created position of “prime-time coach,” who manages only in the big games, but is involved year-round doing social media and interviews, according to Cole.

Two-time World Series champion (2008, 2013) and Hawai’i native Shane Victorino will lead the Coconuts. The team follows a beach theme and will play in coastal locations, while also bringing the beach to other parts of the country. Cole said it is “the most fun, unique, crazy brand that we’ve ever created.”

Victorino has been a friend of the Bananas and joined them multiple times through the years.

“You know, for me, it’s always been about heart. That island pride, that aloha spirit — it’s in everything I do. So, to take that, mix it with the fun, fast-paced energy of Banana Ball? That’s a dream,” Vitorino said in a news release. “Coaching a team like that, it’s about vibes. It’s about makin’ people smile, bringin’ joy to the game and showin’ you can play with passion and with laughter.”

The Clowns have a rich baseball history. They were the Negro Leagues’ version of the Harlem Globetrotters and are the club Hank Aaron signed his first professional contract with. The team started in 1935 and disbanded in 1989.

He called the Clowns the most important team they’ve created, and that it took “years in the making” to bring back.

In 2022, the Bananas played the Kansas City Monarchs and visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Bob Kendrick, the president of the museum, shared the story of the Clowns to Cole, saying that the Bananas reminded Kendrick of the old club.

“He said, ‘All the entertainment, all the fun, all the jokes, all the things you guys were creating, it was like watching the Indianapolis Clowns and that they were true pioneers in this entertainment style,” Cole recalled. “They’re the first ones to do it.”

The two kept talking, and Cole built a relationship with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and asked Kendrick if he could bring it back.

It’s a partnership to preserve the team’s history and introduce people to a team that brought entertainment to sports — opening the door for the Bananas and its other clubs to do the same decades later.

“The rebirth of the Indianapolis Clowns is an exciting and historically relevant tribute to the team that was at the forefront of combining baseball and entertainment,” Kendrick said. “Our partnership is a tremendous opportunity, to not only entertain, but educate fans about the rich history of the Negro Leagues while paying homage to the team that helped influence Banana Ball.”

Ryan Howard — a 2008 World Series champion and 2006 NL MVP — will be tasked with the role of primetime coach for the Clowns.

He called it an honor to coach the team, citing Clowns legends that paved the way such as Hall of Famers Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell.

“Banana Ball is all about energy, entertainment, flipping the script — and you know what? That’s exactly what the Negro Leagues brought to the game from day one,” Howard said in a news release. “Flash. Innovation. Community and an unconditional love for the game. They were rock stars before the world called ballplayers that.”

The two teams will compete alongside the other teams in the Banana Ball Championship League.

The league opens in February with 11 preseason games that leads to a Banana Ball open tournament that will determine a playoff spot. The teams will then play a 50-game regular season from the last weekend of April to September with the top three moving on to the playoffs. The Banana Bowl on Oct. 10, 2026, concludes the season.

Cole called creating the championship league the next logical step and “a no brainer.” He emphasized that it will change things in “many ways,” making every game competitive and entertaining.

Another tweak next year is the equalizer rule where trick plays impact the score. If the visiting team has more trick plays within the first eight innings, they’ll earn an extra point in the ninth. It’s all part of the goal to increase competition.

With Banana Ball growing more and more by the day, there have been weekly calls to bring it overseas. But Cole told ESPN they have a responsibility to the United States first.

“There’s still places all over the country that have not seen Banana Ball that we want to bring it to,” he said. “And so yes, international will happen in the future. It’s not happening in 2026.”

Ticket prices aren’t changing, either. Cole revealed that they expect at least 3 million to 4 million people to join the ticket lottery list in the first 48 hours after Thursday’s announcement. However, there are no plans to raise prices: “We’re not doing it,” Cole matter-of-factly said.

Cole has a vision of bringing Banana Ball worldwide with it becoming a real sport that kids play. He “100%” sees youth tournaments and leagues all over the country and different teams around the world.

“But, every year we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Cole said. “We focus on where we’re going in the future, but really we’ve got to deliver every single year, every single night, every single ballpark.”