How The Savannah Bananas Built A Sports Empire

What happens when you build a sports business around the fans instead of the bottom line?

Savannah Bananas founder Jesse Cole joins Abby Wambach and Julie Foudy to break down how a struggling baseball team became Banana Ball — a phenomenon selling out major stadiums while refusing to play by the traditional rules of sports business.

Jesse shares why he’s committed to keeping tickets affordable, how a “Fans First” philosophy shapes everything from player contracts to the upper deck experience, and why he believes long-term trust matters more than short-term profit. He also takes Abby and Julie inside the evolution of Banana Ball, the upcoming first-ever Banana Bowl, and the joy, accessibility, and community he believes sports can never afford to lose.

Plus, the three explore what women’s sports can learn from the Bananas as the industry grows: how to scale without losing the culture that made people fall in love with it in the first place.

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Women’s sports are booming, but the full pipeline tells a more complicated story. The new WSF Sport Report 2026 looks at girls and women in sports from youth participation through college and the pros, including access, belonging and the future of Title IX. Julie promised we’d link the full study: womenssportsfoundation.org/wsf-sport-report

Okay, so how exactly does Banana Ball work? Two-hour games, no walks, fans catching foul balls for outs and a whole different scoring system. Get all 11 rules here: help.bananaball.com/article-categories/banana-ball-rules

Want to actually get to a Banana Ball game? Jesse explained why they use a ticket lottery and built their own Fans First Marketplace to keep resale tickets at face value and away from scalpers: help.bananaball.com/knowledge-base/how-to-get-tickets-the-lottery-interest-list

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