I’m in awe every time a clip of the Savannah Bananas pops up on social media. Not just because of the skill, or how fun they are to watch — but because it took this long for someone to just say “how about the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball?”
At this point it’s impossible to deny that the Bananas have become the must-see sporting event in the country, but just in case you’re still denying the popularity the team announced some truly mind-boggling numbers from this past weekend. With back-to-back games in Charlotte, NC on Friday and Saturday night the team announced total two-day attendance of 148,000 — selling the stadium out twice in consecutive days.
The Bananas have taken over football stadiums before. Earlier this year the team set its single-game attendance record in Clemson, South Carolina when Banana Ball took over Death Valley in front of 80,000 fans. That felt a little different, however, because it was designed and marketed to set the team record, rather than be organic as sales were in Charlotte.
This was simply a case of 148,000 people wanting to see the Bananas play, and in turn packed the Carolina Panthers stadium with more fans than any NFL game in the stadium since 2020.
The secret sauce to making this whole thing work is fairly simple in theory, but trickier in execution: Have fun. Tapping into a mixture of social media trends, amazing trickery, and tap into the local sports scene. This was on full display as the past and present of the Carolina Panthers were there to take part.
The entire weekend was so big that ESPN pre-empted the College World Series to stay with the end of the Bananas game, because so many people were watching at home. Yes, it might lead to some eye rolls from dyed-in-the-wool baseball fans who adhere to unwritten rules and “respect for the game,” but the Bananas might single-handedly save baseball by making the sport cool to an entire generation of kids who had written it off.
Bananas tickets are so hot that you need to enter a lottery and pray. It’s basically the sporting equivalent of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. It’s just incredible to see a world where people are coming together to love any sporting event this much, without any fighting, angst or rivalry. It rules.
