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

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

They sold lone a fistful of tickets successful the inaugural play successful 2016 arsenic a subordinate of the Coastal Plain League playing arsenic a collegiate summertime team. He and his woman sold their house, emptied their savings accounts and slept connected an aerial furniture to commencement the team. When they near accepted shot successful 2022 and started "Banana Ball," Cole expressed that they had a "big imaginativeness to make thing special."

The doubters expressed an other view.

"We were told it would fail. People said they would ne'er travel to it due to the fact that it's not existent baseball," Cole told ESPN. "We've been criticized each measurement of the way. But you cognize what I remember, what I absorption connected is the fans that emotion it."

After playing successful beforehand of implicit 2 cardinal of those fans and selling retired 17 Major League Baseball stadiums successful 2025, Banana Ball is acceptable up for its biggest determination yet.

Cole announced Thursday connected ESPN2 that the inaugural play of the Banana Ball Championship League is coming to 75 stadiums, 45 states and volition beryllium played successful beforehand of 3.2 cardinal fans adjacent year.

Banana Ball is headed to 14 MLB parks and 10 shot stadiums, including 2 with a capableness of implicit 100,000 -- Texas A&M's Kyle Field (102,000) and Tennessee's Neyland Stadium (101,000). They'll adjacent play astatine Billings, Montana's Dehler Park, which volition big the smallest assemblage successful Banana Ball past astatine 3,000.

The Saints' Superdome and Patriots' Gillette Stadium volition besides beryllium portion of a circuit that is acceptable to beryllium the biggest yet.

Cole, who is the laminitis of Fans First Entertainment and proprietor of each squad successful the league (Bananas, Firefighters, Party Animals and Tailgaters), revealed the caller steps are each astir bringing the crippled to a broader audience.

"When you person truthful overmuch request and excitement, we privation to beryllium capable to spell to the biggest stadiums, but besides to the smallest stadium," Cole said. "We privation to play everywhere. We privation to instrumentality this wherever anyone successful this state tin thrust to a crippled wrong 4 to five, six hours max."

The league besides announced 2 caller teams Thursday: the Loco Beach Coconuts and the Indianapolis Clowns (which carries the sanction of the erstwhile Negro Leagues team). Each nine volition person a recently created presumption of "prime-time coach," who manages lone successful the large games, but is progressive year-round doing societal media and interviews, according to Cole.

Two-time World Series champion (2008, 2013) and Hawai'i autochthonal Shane Victorino volition pb the Coconuts. The squad follows a formation taxable and volition play successful coastal locations, portion besides bringing the formation to different parts of the country. Cole said it is "the astir fun, unique, brainsick marque that we've ever created."

Victorino has been a person of the Bananas and joined them aggregate times done the years.

"You know, for me, it's ever been astir heart. That land pride, that aloha tone -- it's successful everything I do. So, to instrumentality that, premix it with the fun, fast-paced vigor of Banana Ball? That's a dream," Vitorino said successful a quality release. "Coaching a squad similar that, it's astir vibes. It's astir makin' radical smile, bringin' joyousness to the crippled and showin' you tin play with passionateness and with laughter."

The Clowns person a affluent shot history. They were the Negro Leagues' mentation of the Harlem Globetrotters and are the nine Hank Aaron signed his archetypal nonrecreational declaration with. The squad started successful 1935 and disbanded successful 1989.

He called the Clowns the astir important squad they've created, and that it took "years successful 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 communicative of the Clowns to Cole, saying that the Bananas reminded Kendrick of the aged club.

"He said, 'All the entertainment, each the fun, each the jokes, each the things you guys were creating, it was similar watching the Indianapolis Clowns and that they were existent pioneers successful this amusement style," Cole recalled. "They're the archetypal ones to bash it."

The 2 kept talking, and Cole built a narration with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and asked Kendrick if helium could bring it back.

It's a concern to sphere the team's past and present radical to a squad that brought amusement to sports -- opening the doorway for the Bananas and its different clubs to bash the aforesaid decades later.

"The rebirth of the Indianapolis Clowns is an breathtaking and historically applicable tribute to the squad that was astatine the forefront of combining shot and entertainment," Kendrick said. "Our concern is simply a tremendous opportunity, to not lone entertain, but amended fa...