SAVANNAH — The Savannah Bananas’ “greatest show on dirt” will toe new Georgia red clay in 2024.
The barnstorming baseball team known for zany stunts, breakdancing base coaches and viral TikTok videos will play a three-game series March 22 to 24 at Gwinnett’s Coolray Field, the home of the Stripers, the Braves’ Class AAA affiliate.
Bananas owner Jesse Cole made the announcement Thursday as part of a 2024 Banana Ball World Tour Draft. The live event was staged in the outfield of the Bananas’ home ballpark, Grayson Stadium, in front of 3,500 fans.
The Bananas also unveiled plans to play in six major-league stadiums in 2024, including Boston’s Fenway Park; to launch a third traveling professional baseball team named the Firefighters to join the Bananas and their current foil, the Party Animals; and to host a Bananaland-themed cruise to the Bahamas.
“It’s continuing to evolve. It’s always been fans first, and its never going to change,” said Jake Peavy, a former baseball Cy Young Award winner, part-time Bananas pitcher and one of the hosts of World Tour Draft.
The Gwinnett series will be the Bananas’ metro Atlanta debut. The games mark only the second time the Bananas traveling team has played in Georgia – other than in Savannah – since the franchise launched the Harlem Globetrotters-like barnstorming team in 2021. The Bananas played one game in Columbus during their 2022 tour.
Tickets for the Gwinnett game, and all others scheduled for the 2024 season, will be distributed through a lottery. The Bananas began accepting lottery requests at 8 p.m. Thursday night and will close the lottery request on Dec. 1. All tickets are general admission and cost $35.
The lottery is necessary because the Bananas sold out 33 games played at sites across America during the 2023 tour. Every ticket in 2023 was claimed during a pre-sale process.
Credit: Jason Getz/jason.getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz/jason.getz@ajc.com
Coolray Field seats 10,427 fans and both the Bananas’ Cole and Gwinnett Stripers General Manager Erin McCormick anticipate capacity crowds for all three nights. McCormick is eager for the Bananas’ visit, having met Jesse Cole and his wife and business partner Emily Cole more than a decade ago when the couple led a college summer league team in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Once the Coles founded the Bananas in 2016 and gained a reputation for integrating crowd-pleasing zany antics into their games, the Stripers sent their marketing team to Savannah for several days to shadow and learn from the Bananas’ staff.
McCormick anticipates the Bananas’ visit exposing non-traditional baseball fans to Coolray Field – and enticing them to return and see the Stripers. The Gwinnett team will be in spring training with the Braves when the Bananas come to town.
“Anytime we can get more people to the ballpark who have never been here before it’s a positive thing,” McCormick said. “There are a lot of similarities between what the Bananas do and what we do in Minor League Baseball in terms of entertainment. Cole is able to push the limits a lot further, and it could bring in a whole new fan base.”
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Georgians wanting to see a Bananas game who can’t attend the Gwinnett series will have increased opportunities to see the team in Savannah. The 2024 tour includes 29 home dates in an expanded Grayson Stadium. Cole announced plans Thursday to add 1,000 seats in pop-up grandstands similar to those installed for PGA Tour golf tournaments beyond the stadium’s outfield walls.
The 97-year-old ballpark will seat 5,500 fans in its new configuration.
Many Banana fans in Savannah and beyond anticipated the team playing at the Braves’ stadium, Truist Park, in 2024. Cole first voiced his desire to play in major-league facilities in 2021, mentioning Fenway Park and other venues.
Cole, a Massachusetts native and lifelong Red Sox fan, struck a deal with the operators of Fenway as well as major-league ballparks in Houston, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Philadelphia and Miami for 2024. He acknowledged talks with the Braves about playing a game at Truist Park in past years, but not for 2024.
“We’ve heard from more than half the major-league teams, so when the time is right and it’s a good fit, it’ll be great,” Cole said.
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
The 2024 Bananas World Tour will be the busiest in the franchise’s short history. The schedule includes games in 29 cities and has the potential to draw more than 1 million spectators.
The Bananas eclipsed 500,000 in attendance in 33 games this year. They played before crowds of 30,000 over two nights in Indianapolis, Indiana; 26,000 in a two-game series in Des Moines, Iowa; and 14,000 in a one-game visit to Sacramento, California.
Bananas games also drew 7 million viewers to the franchise’s YouTube Channel.
