May 9, 2025 • 24 mins
In this exciting episode, we talk Banana Ball Buzz, we sit down with Zack Frongillo, the Director of Entertainment for the Savannah Bananas, and Dustin Baber, the second baseman for the Party Animals. Join us as we dive into the incredible success of Banana Ball, the innovative and entertaining twist on traditional baseball that has captivated fans across the nation.Zack and Dustin share their insights on what makes Banana Ball so special, from the unique rules to the high-energy atmosphere that keeps fans on the edge of their seats. They also give us a sneak peek into the upcoming game in Nashville this weekend, promising loads of fun and unforgettable moments.Whether you're a die-hard baseball fan or just looking for a good time, this episode is packed with excitement, laughter, and behind-the-scenes stories that you won't want to miss. Tune in and get ready to catch the Banana Ball fever!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's fine. Listen.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
They have gone from what the hell is that? To
iconic in a very short amount of time. Repping the
Savannah Bananas.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I got my man, Zach. Here we go way back.
What's up, Zach?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Way back?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
How you doing? Life is good?
Speaker 4 (00:12):
Man?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And we got dust and Dusty play second base for
the Bananas. Go ahead and slide up a little closer.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
There.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
First of all, before I get to you and how
the game comes together? How the hell does the Savannah
Bananas become your gig bro as a baseball player?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I mean you have to have baseball talent, right, Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
I played five years for college.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
But then same story as ever, the baseball player get
hurt and kind of walk away from the game. And
then two years later, me and the wife were sitting
on the couch and she saw a video and it
was one of their dances they did.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
She's like, that'd be hilarious to see you do it,
So do you think you could?
Speaker 5 (00:45):
I was like, I don't know, and I went online,
found a form to sign up, and then four years later,
I'm still doing it.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Did you ever think a baseball tryout would involve shaking
your hips?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
No? That first try out threw me for a loop
so fast it was.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
It was so shocking, and then once you get into
it for about a year, you just buy in and
it's just the best job in your life.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, you're like, I could turn a double plate to like, yeah,
but can you do the worm?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
You're like, who the Okay?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I don't know why?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
That's relevant for sure?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah why not? So how long have you been with
the bananas en?
Speaker 4 (01:17):
So this is my fourth year? Come on right now.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
I picked up in the summer series of twenty twenty three,
I believe, and I've been on the party animals as
their second basement left for Khan, drinking beer and having
a good time.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
That's so wild, And it's funny because if you look
at the business model behind this, not many businesses flourished
from COVID. It's almost like COVID happened and like it
set y'all on fire.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah. Yeah, COVID was kind of the thing that catapulted
what is banana BA. So obviously we were playing in
the Coastal Plain League and there's only a couple teams
that were able to play, and so we had the
opportunity to play, but we didn't have anybody to play,
and so that birthed into the party, animals playing, and
this idea of banana which had very early life at
(02:03):
that point, Like the first game was in twenty eighteen
behind closed doors, and then twenty twenty happened and banana
Ball really started to take off, and that's when we realized, wait,
this might be the future of what the Savannah bananas
are well.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And so for people that aren't familiar and if I
hear somebody that's never gone.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
They're like, oh, it's like the Harlem Globetrotters baseball. Was
that ever?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
He's like, I mean, was there any inspiration drawn from
how they do their thing?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
No, disrespect to the Globetrotters. That's more like just family
entertainment straight up.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Where you guys, you're a show. They're entertainment. You're a show.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean the Globetrotters were selling out massive stadiums,
similar to how we are. You know, they revolutionized basketball
very early on. You know, they invented the dunk. There
were people that were playing with the Globetrotters instead of
going to the NBA. Then obviously the NBA turned into
a league and started to gear more towards to what
it is now and with the Globe Trunters did is
(03:00):
they realized that they could take the exact same product
and put it into four different locations at any given
time and do the same thing. And that's when the
Generals were birthed. And the Generals never won. And we
take a lot of pride in Yeah, it takes pride
in what we do because our games aren't fixed. As
much as I love to say I could scriptating a fastball,
(03:22):
it's impossible, Like, it is very difficult to do, and
it's impossible. And so we you know, from there that
birthed the Party Animals who ended up winning the twenty
twenty one Tour. They're currently winning the twenty twenty five Tour.
You know, they are insanely talented and they win multiple
games and they are, you know, the best team in
the league this year. So it's absolutely a difference, but
(03:45):
it's very much similar in that show element.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
How baseball is probably arguably one of the most respected
America's past time. Yeah at baseball. I grew up a
massive Minnesota Twins fan. Yeah, so I know what it's
likes to get kicked in the privates regularly as a sportsman.
But how do you I'd imagine respecting the base unintended
(04:10):
of what baseball is is important to still. So how
do you, guys make sure that you're you know, protecting
that part of the game.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
You play the game the right way.
Speaker 5 (04:19):
I mean, so everyone's going to look at the dances,
and you look at the trick plays and all these
other things, but if you look at the actual core.
And this is a lot I've got a lot of
comments from past coaches that have seen the game.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
I've got a lot of past teammates that have come
and watched.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
They say, at the heart of it, if you look
past the dances, you look past the choreographed celebrations, you'll
see really, really, really good baseball being played at the
same exact time we just played on there a little
bit different parameters, so games faster and baseball you take
your time. But now they're starting to speed it up.
They're starting to try to speed up their game.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It's just we we just tweaked it. And if you
really look into the heart of.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
The game, you can see the same things that everyone
love about baseball.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
You find it in our game.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
It kind of just gets covered up with all the
all the dances and stuff.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
But when you go.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
And watch a game, watching between the lines and you'll
see the same amazing game of baseball being played.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's wild to me that that you you, Zach, you
pushed like it's not fixed. Like these guys sure that
when the music's gonna hit, the choreography, the entrances, the celebrities.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Being added, like that's all.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
But like at the end of the day, the scoreboard
is gonna be whatever the scoreboard is gonna be.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah. Absolutely, these guys want to win, like there's no
doubt about it. They want to win. They go in
every single day with the mentality that we are going
to win this game. And it's super important for the
validity of Banana Ball as a whole because as we
grow into the next coming years. You know, we've already
announced our Banana Ball Championship League, which is coming next year.
So we're gonna have six teams playing. You can't fix
(05:52):
a league like if that's when everything goes out the window,
and so any of those teams can come out with
the championship at the end of next year. And so
as we build into this league, it's super important that
we won get very clear in what banana ball is.
It is a very fresh sport and to build a
sport is not easy, and so being very clear on
what the rules are and all the little intricacies, but
then also understanding what makes us unique and special. You know,
(06:15):
the Savannah Banana is as a whole. The reason that
they are where they are is because of that entertainment value.
And so every single one of those shows. When the
Party Animals go on their headlining tour this year, and
the Firefighters go on their headlining tour and the Tailgaters
go on their headlining tour, each show has to be
distinctly different but also keep that same level of entertainment
that makes the Savannah Bananas special.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
It's and it's wild because the entertainment aspect of Again,
I grew up, baseball was number one, man, my number
one love. As I got older, baseball, straight up traditional
baseball got boring as a fan.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
To play great, but like to sit as a fan.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I mean, Pitcher's dual is great, you know, but at
the same time, it's like, if I go to the bathroom,
I'm not going to miss a lot, right.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Especially as a toy. That's funny, doesn't so.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
But but it's funny because you look at what you
guys have built, and there's like any anybody I talked to,
anybody I've met, obviously seeing your passion for it, Like
it's wild how you have pumped fresh blood into a
game that I mean, you brought up the changes right,
making the game faster. The game was dying a slow death.
(07:25):
So how has major League Baseball received banana Ball or
they kind of like.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, at first it was it was a little bit
of a challenge. I don't think there was any sort
of animosity or bad blood, but uh, we're playing in
their facilities, Like we're selling out major league stadiums, and.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I was gonna say, if.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
We can't, if we can't go in there, like if
Major League Baseball had something against us, we wouldn't be
playing in those facilities. We understand that the games can
be different, like we always here's like you're ruining baseball,
your X, Y and Z all this stuff, but it's
like yeah, from ve, yeah exactly, Yeah, absolutely, these two
things can coexist. Right. You can have Major League Baseball
(08:08):
and the baseball peeris, but you can also have banana
Ball and understand what it's for and the entertainment value
and so uh, the fact that we've created a relationship
between us and Major League Baseball is huge and I
think that it's something that will grow in the future
as well.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Dustin, what do your anybody that you went to college with?
Are they in Major League Baseball right now?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
I have a couple of guys that I've played with
and they all they all reach out to me and
are they.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Like are you serious?
Speaker 5 (08:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Well, they like they look.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
They call me and they say, hey, I see it
coming to our stadium. I'm like, yeah, we are. And
he's like, can I get a ticket? I can't get one.
I'm like, it's your stadium.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Do you think? Like they didn't say any side.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
I was like, I'll find a way to get you there.
But it's just yeah, they're they're dumbfounded. Of the guys
that are on the long track, I got a guy
to Bias Myers.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
He pitches for the Brewers. I just talked to him,
I think a couple of.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Weeks ago, and he's pitching for the Brewers in their
starting rotation. And I know that the I believe we
were contact of actually going there, and I don't know
if anything worked out or but I don't really know
about anything like that. But he was like, I saw
you guys might be coming here. I saw you guys
were in town for the Milkman a couple of years ago.
He's like, I got to get out to a game.
I'm like, dude, I want to get to your game.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
You take it to your game.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
I'm like, so, it's kind of funny that we bounce
things off each other, like they love our game that
we play, but then also as baseball players, we're all
fans of their game, so it's we like to bounce it.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Off each other.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And it's funny because as if you watch social media
or you watch obviously, ESPN did the feature about y'all.
You guys, the party animals are painted like you're the
bad team, right, You're the You're you're the cowboy and
the black hat and the bananas are the white hat cowboy.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Uh So, whenever you're like.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, yeah, I played banana ball showed up you play
with the bananas, You're like, oh I played in there.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Go oh do you get that?
Speaker 5 (09:50):
You make it so much easier if you just say
you play for the bananas. You can try, and you
can try and tell them and they're like, what's the difference,
And they're like, oh, we're all under one umbrella. It's
two different teams. But it's just Hey, we're part of
that black and pink team. We're the other guys, and
we love I will speak for the whole team.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
We love being the.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Other guys because it just it kind of takes the
stress of being like the star.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Of the show.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
You can be the other guy that we're going to
cause chaos and that's what our job is to do.
So we're going to do it to the best of
our ability.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
As much as it's a game, it's equally a show,
and and a show has a curtain. Everything in front
of the curtain is awesome, perfect, and I'm so lucky
and the fans are having a great time behind the curtain.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm just going to shoot this straight. Sometimes sh it sucks, right.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So for each of you, as you know, as developing
the game and the entertainment and as a player, what's
something behind the scenes that a fan might not realize,
Like that's a really not that anything sucks like we do,
but there are Daisy, wake up and be like, damn
what what our challenges are are. What are things that
that fans might not realize that are like this part
(10:57):
really kind of sucks.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, I can't say it's.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, well just straight up, like straight up, it is hard.
What we do, like being able to take everything. We
developed our own ticket systems, we sell our own merch
we bring in all of our own equipment, We take
our broadcast, we brought our broadcast. Everything is in house.
We took every variable and brought it in house. And
(11:21):
that is really hard to do. You know. Obviously, the travel,
like you said, is awesome, and you get to see
all these amazing places, but to be able to take
a baseball field and put it into a football stadium
and then bring all of your equipment on the road
is incredibly difficult. In figuring out the logistics behind that
and the amount of planning that goes into it is
(11:43):
really really difficult. And I think that's something that gets
overlooked a lot of just truly how difficult it is
to take our show that was built in a five
thousand seat stadium and put it in front of eighty
one thousand in Clemson. You know, it's just so different,
and so that's probably the the hardest part. That's like
the like the toughest part to get out of bed.
(12:03):
But it's also the part that's like, you know, this
is what makes it special, Like that is the part
that really gets you going at the end of the day.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
And Dustin, what about too, I'd say for me, it's
separating the baseball performance and the whole fans first aspect
of being making those interactions.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So you have a rough down the field, let's say
you go over four.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
You have to now turn around and you got to
put that baseball performance aside and you have to go
make those interactions with the fans.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
You got to make a fans night.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
It's as you go through it, you learn, hey, this
is part of the job. Whether you did well, whether
you struggled, it doesn't matter. The fans are what's important
in all this. So it took a while. I've gotten better.
A lot of the guys have gotten better about Hey,
maybe you struggle today, but there's fans that are here
that won't even know what your stat line is. They
won't even care what you did in the game. So
(12:50):
you're here to see you and they want an interaction
with you.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
So if you.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Can't stop moping in the background, get your butt out
there and make a memory for a fan. At that point,
learning that and kind of maneuvering your way into a
good position to be in, that's where it was hardest
for me at least, and I know a lot of
the guys also would agree with it. It's just kind
of hey, baseball, I know, competitive juices get flown. You
really upset, you shruggled, You've kind have just blown the
(13:15):
safe to get up the game, or you might have
like made an air that cost the game. Fans don't care.
They got an amazing show. They want to see you now.
So now it's time to do your real job, which
is go out there and make a memory. So learning
that and kind of understanding that and taking it as
taking it as like taking it to heart, that was.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Kind of the hardest thing for me. I see proud
wife face over there. So that's a good answer. Good answer.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So when it comes to playing baseball in a football stadium, yeah,
I will I will say no disrespect to Will Levis
and the boys across the river, but you're gonna have
more people in that venue than they had all year.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
How does the game change for you? Guys.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I mean, at the end of the day, if there's
grass and there's any form of dirt and things that
look like basis maybe paper plates, like you're playing ball,
but like in a football stadium, I haven't seen the
layout yet and what like, how do you even think, like, sure,
let's do that.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
For the baseball players. I know this, it's backyard baseball.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
The games online you see all these things where like
the fields aren't perfect, the dimensions aren't exactly what you want,
but you have ninety feet in between each base you
have sixty feet six inches from pitchers mound home plate.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Yeap, that's all that the players care about. That's all
we need. That's all you need to play a game
and put on a show for the fans.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
So for the football stadiums, yeah, there's gonna be a
short portion, right, Yeah, it's gonna be two hundred and
twenty feet or two hundred and thirty feets, So whatever
it is, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day,
battle between pitcher, hitter and all the position players and
all reay to do is adjust the defensive positions a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
But other than that, we're playing baseball. That's gonna be wild.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, the dream of putting it in a football stadium
was a massive ask and a huge It took a
lot of very smart people to get into a room
and really lay it out. But Tampa was our first
football stadium that we played in this year, which we
weren't even supposed to play there. Unfortunately, what happened to
the Tropicana Field, Like, we're supposed play at the trop
(15:14):
and Clemson was going to be our first football stadium,
and thank goodness it was. It was Tampa. But what
we learned was that it's possible. You know, everybody's like,
there's gonna be thirty home runs with the short porch
and turned out to only be three. Now, granted, we
go to Clemson and we bring the left field line
in a little bit more and there's eleven home runs. Darn.
People love to see the long ball. It doesn't really matter.
(15:34):
But it's doable, and it's I think the toughest part
is just making sure that everybody feels like they got
a great show. And so the person that's sitting the
furthest away in dead center field, that's, you know, five
hundred feet away from home plate, how are they going
to get the exact same show as the person that's
sitting right behind home plate. And so the utilization of
the video boards and you know, sending characters up there
(15:56):
to like really go say hello and make a kid's
day up there. That once we realized how easy that
piece was, the baseball took care of itself. Like we
truly looked from the outside in and put ourselves in
our fans shoes. Because once we put ourselves in our
fans shoes, it made it very clear, like, all right,
the one thing that we're going to hear is that
it's too big. And once we were able to really
(16:16):
combat that with putting people up in the upper decks
and doing performances in the upper decks and setting our
band on you know, a scavenger hunt around the field.
You know, it was we were really able to hone
in on creating fans first moments, and then the baseball
just took care of itself.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
It's so sick, man, and watching people react to like
the announcement of the show, the game coming, and the
announcement of tickets on sale. It, I mean, it's everything
you guys do feels like an event before.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
You even come to town. Is that intentional.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yeah, absolutely, I think the demand is absolutely a big
piece of it. What we've been able to do on
social media is the heart and soul of what we do.
You know, that is the thing that has really taking
us from one level to the next. But you know,
we pay zero dollars in traditional marketing. We don't do
the advertisements. We don't do the you know, the random
(17:09):
Facebook ad that you'll see and gets annoying, or the
YouTube last like, we don't do that kind of stuff.
We just show what We kind of show what you're missing, right.
It's like we're playing a game in in you know, Boston,
for example, We're going to show you everything that you
missed out in that game in Boston. And that way,
by the time you see that we're coming to your city,
it's like, oh my gosh, I have to go see
(17:30):
the binanda.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's genius too, because if you look at every sports franchise,
you're going to see a static post that was pre
scheduled by some intern yep on a Tuesday in the
office to push ticket sales Friday for the weekend game.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yes, and it's going to be an image that has
nothing to do with the game.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
YEP.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Maybe just a logo, but like, don't tell me to
be there, show me why I should be pissed.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, they call the action posts like those are those
are what kill creativity and fun and so everything we
do when we post, we ask ourselves two questions, does
it make baseball fun? And is it fans? First? And
if they answered is no to either those questions, we're
not gonna post it. And so what we realized is
when we were doing call to action post where it's like, hey,
buy this t shirt, buy this ticket, buy this season ticket,
planned we realized our numbers went down, and they went
(18:15):
down fast. But when we showed fun, when we showed enjoyment,
when we showed our fans having fun, then the numbers
just took off again. And so it's truly that like
fear of missing out, like I have to be there,
I have to go to this game, and that's what's
built our our our wait list to be over three
million people at this point, and the opportunity to get
tickets is so slim because of that number.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
How how do you keep people from getting pissed off?
Because sports pss pisces people off?
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Weather, weather, Yeah, well what are you gonna do. Yeah,
you can't make everybody happy, and that's it.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
And to be fair the game part aside as you're
talking fans first and you build a fan experience, you
have to be real with yourself that there's people aren't
gonna like.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
It, and people are gonna be mad at I pearist
are not going to be a fan.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
I mean, they're gonna be so hard headed.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
I had my college coach, I love him to death,
head over heels about him. He just turned the corner
and started asking me questions and started getting intrigued by
what I'm doing. But for the first three years of
me doing it, he could not stand it. Every time
I went back for the alumni game because I did
love him, I love him more than anything else. But
I would go back and he would just give me
(19:25):
so much crap. He would just he would he would
just ride me the whole time I was there.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
He wasted all that time exactly, and he would just
do that.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
But then he finally turned the corner and he saw
the level of talent that we had on the field
and the game that we were playing.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
He was like, this is actually really cool. And then
I started doing it.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
On the field with his players and just messing around
with trick players with their infielders.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
And he was like, that's really hard to do.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
I was like, yeah, we're not making the game easier,
We're making it harder for ourselves.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
So the last thing I want to ask you to
a family who who to come to a game didn't
get in the ticket process this time, you'll come back
to Nashville. You've come back already, right, So obviously this
is the market that you guys see success in.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
What do you say to them to.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Like, hey, be patient? Like, ye, be patient. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
The first thing I'd say is join the K Club.
I mean that is where our business is going for
the most part of Like, we want to build a
sense of community in our K Club, which is very
We based a lot of it off of the Dave
Matthews band and they're traveling fan club, Like they have
this massive fan club, right, and so we took a
lot of notes on what they did, and so we
built the K Club, which is where our die hard
(20:37):
fans have the ability to get first access to tickets.
These are the people that are like dying to get
to a game or have been to a game and
they have first access to tickets. That is the best
way to get in, and those are the right people
that should be getting tickets. You know, we see the
secondary market all the time, you know, we see the
StubHub prices, We see all of these not guaranteed tickets
(20:59):
and were the sob stories and they're really sad stories
all the time where like, you know, a family of
five showed up and they had tickets through stub Hub
and they actually don't have tickets, right, And it's really.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Hard only to realize that in on y'all. No, no,
not at all, and the and the secondary market it's brutal.
You've seen your you've seen your the money.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
That y'all are going to make, not that like you're
directly seeing a dollar off of a ticket, but that
the money that the bananas are going to make off
the ticket they have made, if you're seeing it on
the secondary market.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Like, yeah, it's probably not even there, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
And I see people get pissed off about like the
secondary market.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I'm like, dude, that's some clown in his mother's basement
trying to buy a new pair of Jordan's and you're
going to fund them.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
You know, I mean exactly, it's really sad. It's really
really sad. But the K Club specifically, I think that's
like step one, try to get into into the K Club.
We do it after every season, we'll post about it
like say, hey, join the K Club this day, that
that's the best way to get tickets. But then all
of our games are free on YouTube. We are the
first sports team ever to have an non exclusive deal
(22:00):
with ESPN to mean, which means that if we play
on ESPN, you can still watch our game for free
live on YouTube. We are non exclusive, which is insane,
which is wild to me because that's there.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
I feel like there's a lot of marketing dollars missed
by just giving the game away.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah yeah, I mean, it's it's what's fans first? You know,
our fans were used to watching the games on YouTube,
and when we have done it in the past where
we just played on ESPN, and all we heard from
a lot of our biggest fans was like, I don't
have cable, Like I literally don't. I don't want to
pay this extra fee to just watch your guys's games.
And we realize it wasn't fans first to just go
(22:37):
on ESPN or go on TNT or whatever it is.
And so our owner Jesse Cole and Jared our president,
where Adamant was like, if we are going to do this,
we are going to do a non exclusive and we
will put our games on YouTube for free. And eventually
ESPN came back and we're like, you know, we can't
turn a blind eye to it any longer, Like we
have to have you guys on and now that's how
you can see us. And so like, if you're not
(22:59):
watching on ESPN, watch on YouTube and create that community,
join the k club and were we are not slowing
down our travel to say the least. Like you might
not see the Bananas in your city, but you will
see Banana Ball specifically, and every single one of those
shows is going to be just as good, if not
better than the Banana show.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So I'm an opinion down and I'm hoping I can
levage our friendship on this. Will the Bananas be and
you don't get half to give me a date or whoever,
and not even the bananas. Will Banana Ball be played
in Nashville in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I honestly have no idea, but I will sell I
sure Hope. So I love obviously, I love Nashville.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I would be.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Surprised if we're not back in Nashville. This is one
of our best markets. Like we're very strategic on where
we placed our football stadiums, Like, there's obviously a demand
here in Nashville. So I'd be surprised if if we
weren't back in Nashville, but one of the teams will
be here, I would be stunned.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And to say the least, if we weren't awesome, Well,
enjoy your time in Nashville. Boys, thank you and thanks
for being here. Thanks for having us
It's fine. Listen.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
They have gone from what the hell is that? To
iconic in a very short amount of time. Repping the
Savannah Bananas.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I got my man, Zach. Here we go way back.
What's up, Zach?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Way back?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
How you doing? Life is good?
Speaker 4 (00:12):
Man?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And we got dust and Dusty play second base for
the Bananas. Go ahead and slide up a little closer.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
There.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
First of all, before I get to you and how
the game comes together? How the hell does the Savannah
Bananas become your gig bro as a baseball player?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I mean you have to have baseball talent, right, Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
I played five years for college.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
But then same story as ever, the baseball player get
hurt and kind of walk away from the game. And
then two years later, me and the wife were sitting
on the couch and she saw a video and it
was one of their dances they did.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
She's like, that'd be hilarious to see you do it,
So do you think you could?
Speaker 5 (00:45):
I was like, I don't know, and I went online,
found a form to sign up, and then four years later,
I'm still doing it.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Did you ever think a baseball tryout would involve shaking
your hips?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
No? That first try out threw me for a loop
so fast it was.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
It was so shocking, and then once you get into
it for about a year, you just buy in and
it's just the best job in your life.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, you're like, I could turn a double plate to like, yeah,
but can you do the worm?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
You're like, who the Okay?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I don't know why?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
That's relevant for sure?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah why not? So how long have you been with
the bananas en?
Speaker 4 (01:17):
So this is my fourth year? Come on right now.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
I picked up in the summer series of twenty twenty three,
I believe, and I've been on the party animals as
their second basement left for Khan, drinking beer and having
a good time.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
That's so wild, And it's funny because if you look
at the business model behind this, not many businesses flourished
from COVID. It's almost like COVID happened and like it
set y'all on fire.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah. Yeah, COVID was kind of the thing that catapulted
what is banana BA. So obviously we were playing in
the Coastal Plain League and there's only a couple teams
that were able to play, and so we had the
opportunity to play, but we didn't have anybody to play,
and so that birthed into the party, animals playing, and
this idea of banana which had very early life at
(02:03):
that point, Like the first game was in twenty eighteen
behind closed doors, and then twenty twenty happened and banana
Ball really started to take off, and that's when we realized, wait,
this might be the future of what the Savannah bananas
are well.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And so for people that aren't familiar and if I
hear somebody that's never gone.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
They're like, oh, it's like the Harlem Globetrotters baseball. Was
that ever?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
He's like, I mean, was there any inspiration drawn from
how they do their thing?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
No, disrespect to the Globetrotters. That's more like just family
entertainment straight up.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Where you guys, you're a show. They're entertainment. You're a show.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean the Globetrotters were selling out massive stadiums,
similar to how we are. You know, they revolutionized basketball
very early on. You know, they invented the dunk. There
were people that were playing with the Globetrotters instead of
going to the NBA. Then obviously the NBA turned into
a league and started to gear more towards to what
it is now and with the Globe Trunters did is
(03:00):
they realized that they could take the exact same product
and put it into four different locations at any given
time and do the same thing. And that's when the
Generals were birthed. And the Generals never won. And we
take a lot of pride in Yeah, it takes pride
in what we do because our games aren't fixed. As
much as I love to say I could scriptating a fastball,
(03:22):
it's impossible, Like, it is very difficult to do, and
it's impossible. And so we you know, from there that
birthed the Party Animals who ended up winning the twenty
twenty one Tour. They're currently winning the twenty twenty five Tour.
You know, they are insanely talented and they win multiple
games and they are, you know, the best team in
the league this year. So it's absolutely a difference, but
(03:45):
it's very much similar in that show element.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
How baseball is probably arguably one of the most respected
America's past time. Yeah at baseball. I grew up a
massive Minnesota Twins fan. Yeah, so I know what it's
likes to get kicked in the privates regularly as a sportsman.
But how do you I'd imagine respecting the base unintended
(04:10):
of what baseball is is important to still. So how
do you, guys make sure that you're you know, protecting
that part of the game.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
You play the game the right way.
Speaker 5 (04:19):
I mean, so everyone's going to look at the dances,
and you look at the trick plays and all these
other things, but if you look at the actual core.
And this is a lot I've got a lot of
comments from past coaches that have seen the game.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
I've got a lot of past teammates that have come
and watched.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
They say, at the heart of it, if you look
past the dances, you look past the choreographed celebrations, you'll
see really, really, really good baseball being played at the
same exact time we just played on there a little
bit different parameters, so games faster and baseball you take
your time. But now they're starting to speed it up.
They're starting to try to speed up their game.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It's just we we just tweaked it. And if you
really look into the heart of.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
The game, you can see the same things that everyone
love about baseball.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
You find it in our game.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
It kind of just gets covered up with all the
all the dances and stuff.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
But when you go.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
And watch a game, watching between the lines and you'll
see the same amazing game of baseball being played.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's wild to me that that you you, Zach, you
pushed like it's not fixed. Like these guys sure that
when the music's gonna hit, the choreography, the entrances, the celebrities.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Being added, like that's all.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
But like at the end of the day, the scoreboard
is gonna be whatever the scoreboard is gonna be.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah. Absolutely, these guys want to win, like there's no
doubt about it. They want to win. They go in
every single day with the mentality that we are going
to win this game. And it's super important for the
validity of Banana Ball as a whole because as we
grow into the next coming years. You know, we've already
announced our Banana Ball Championship League, which is coming next year.
So we're gonna have six teams playing. You can't fix
(05:52):
a league like if that's when everything goes out the window,
and so any of those teams can come out with
the championship at the end of next year. And so
as we build into this league, it's super important that
we won get very clear in what banana ball is.
It is a very fresh sport and to build a
sport is not easy, and so being very clear on
what the rules are and all the little intricacies, but
then also understanding what makes us unique and special. You know,
(06:15):
the Savannah Banana is as a whole. The reason that
they are where they are is because of that entertainment value.
And so every single one of those shows. When the
Party Animals go on their headlining tour this year, and
the Firefighters go on their headlining tour and the Tailgaters
go on their headlining tour, each show has to be
distinctly different but also keep that same level of entertainment
that makes the Savannah Bananas special.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
It's and it's wild because the entertainment aspect of Again,
I grew up, baseball was number one, man, my number
one love. As I got older, baseball, straight up traditional
baseball got boring as a fan.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
To play great, but like to sit as a fan.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I mean, Pitcher's dual is great, you know, but at
the same time, it's like, if I go to the bathroom,
I'm not going to miss a lot, right.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Especially as a toy. That's funny, doesn't so.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
But but it's funny because you look at what you
guys have built, and there's like any anybody I talked to,
anybody I've met, obviously seeing your passion for it, Like
it's wild how you have pumped fresh blood into a
game that I mean, you brought up the changes right,
making the game faster. The game was dying a slow death.
(07:25):
So how has major League Baseball received banana Ball or
they kind of like.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, at first it was it was a little bit
of a challenge. I don't think there was any sort
of animosity or bad blood, but uh, we're playing in
their facilities, Like we're selling out major league stadiums, and.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I was gonna say, if.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
We can't, if we can't go in there, like if
Major League Baseball had something against us, we wouldn't be
playing in those facilities. We understand that the games can
be different, like we always here's like you're ruining baseball,
your X, Y and Z all this stuff, but it's
like yeah, from ve, yeah exactly, Yeah, absolutely, these two
things can coexist. Right. You can have Major League Baseball
(08:08):
and the baseball peeris, but you can also have banana
Ball and understand what it's for and the entertainment value
and so uh, the fact that we've created a relationship
between us and Major League Baseball is huge and I
think that it's something that will grow in the future
as well.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Dustin, what do your anybody that you went to college with?
Are they in Major League Baseball right now?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
I have a couple of guys that I've played with
and they all they all reach out to me and
are they.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Like are you serious?
Speaker 5 (08:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Well, they like they look.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
They call me and they say, hey, I see it
coming to our stadium. I'm like, yeah, we are. And
he's like, can I get a ticket? I can't get one.
I'm like, it's your stadium.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Do you think? Like they didn't say any side.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
I was like, I'll find a way to get you there.
But it's just yeah, they're they're dumbfounded. Of the guys
that are on the long track, I got a guy
to Bias Myers.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
He pitches for the Brewers. I just talked to him,
I think a couple of.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Weeks ago, and he's pitching for the Brewers in their
starting rotation. And I know that the I believe we
were contact of actually going there, and I don't know
if anything worked out or but I don't really know
about anything like that. But he was like, I saw
you guys might be coming here. I saw you guys
were in town for the Milkman a couple of years ago.
He's like, I got to get out to a game.
I'm like, dude, I want to get to your game.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
You take it to your game.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
I'm like, so, it's kind of funny that we bounce
things off each other, like they love our game that
we play, but then also as baseball players, we're all
fans of their game, so it's we like to bounce it.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Off each other.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And it's funny because as if you watch social media
or you watch obviously, ESPN did the feature about y'all.
You guys, the party animals are painted like you're the
bad team, right, You're the You're you're the cowboy and
the black hat and the bananas are the white hat cowboy.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Uh So, whenever you're like.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, yeah, I played banana ball showed up you play
with the bananas, You're like, oh I played in there.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Go oh do you get that?
Speaker 5 (09:50):
You make it so much easier if you just say
you play for the bananas. You can try, and you
can try and tell them and they're like, what's the difference,
And they're like, oh, we're all under one umbrella. It's
two different teams. But it's just Hey, we're part of
that black and pink team. We're the other guys, and
we love I will speak for the whole team.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
We love being the.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Other guys because it just it kind of takes the
stress of being like the star.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Of the show.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
You can be the other guy that we're going to
cause chaos and that's what our job is to do.
So we're going to do it to the best of
our ability.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
As much as it's a game, it's equally a show,
and and a show has a curtain. Everything in front
of the curtain is awesome, perfect, and I'm so lucky
and the fans are having a great time behind the curtain.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm just going to shoot this straight. Sometimes sh it sucks, right.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So for each of you, as you know, as developing
the game and the entertainment and as a player, what's
something behind the scenes that a fan might not realize,
Like that's a really not that anything sucks like we do,
but there are Daisy, wake up and be like, damn
what what our challenges are are. What are things that
that fans might not realize that are like this part
(10:57):
really kind of sucks.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, I can't say it's.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, well just straight up, like straight up, it is hard.
What we do, like being able to take everything. We
developed our own ticket systems, we sell our own merch
we bring in all of our own equipment, We take
our broadcast, we brought our broadcast. Everything is in house.
We took every variable and brought it in house. And
(11:21):
that is really hard to do. You know. Obviously, the travel,
like you said, is awesome, and you get to see
all these amazing places, but to be able to take
a baseball field and put it into a football stadium
and then bring all of your equipment on the road
is incredibly difficult. In figuring out the logistics behind that
and the amount of planning that goes into it is
(11:43):
really really difficult. And I think that's something that gets
overlooked a lot of just truly how difficult it is
to take our show that was built in a five
thousand seat stadium and put it in front of eighty
one thousand in Clemson. You know, it's just so different,
and so that's probably the the hardest part. That's like
the like the toughest part to get out of bed.
(12:03):
But it's also the part that's like, you know, this
is what makes it special, Like that is the part
that really gets you going at the end of the day.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
And Dustin, what about too, I'd say for me, it's
separating the baseball performance and the whole fans first aspect
of being making those interactions.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So you have a rough down the field, let's say
you go over four.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
You have to now turn around and you got to
put that baseball performance aside and you have to go
make those interactions with the fans.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
You got to make a fans night.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
It's as you go through it, you learn, hey, this
is part of the job. Whether you did well, whether
you struggled, it doesn't matter. The fans are what's important
in all this. So it took a while. I've gotten better.
A lot of the guys have gotten better about Hey,
maybe you struggle today, but there's fans that are here
that won't even know what your stat line is. They
won't even care what you did in the game. So
(12:50):
you're here to see you and they want an interaction
with you.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
So if you.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Can't stop moping in the background, get your butt out
there and make a memory for a fan. At that point,
learning that and kind of maneuvering your way into a
good position to be in, that's where it was hardest
for me at least, and I know a lot of
the guys also would agree with it. It's just kind
of hey, baseball, I know, competitive juices get flown. You
really upset, you shruggled, You've kind have just blown the
(13:15):
safe to get up the game, or you might have
like made an air that cost the game. Fans don't care.
They got an amazing show. They want to see you now.
So now it's time to do your real job, which
is go out there and make a memory. So learning
that and kind of understanding that and taking it as
taking it as like taking it to heart, that was.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Kind of the hardest thing for me. I see proud
wife face over there. So that's a good answer. Good answer.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So when it comes to playing baseball in a football stadium, yeah,
I will I will say no disrespect to Will Levis
and the boys across the river, but you're gonna have
more people in that venue than they had all year.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
How does the game change for you? Guys.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I mean, at the end of the day, if there's
grass and there's any form of dirt and things that
look like basis maybe paper plates, like you're playing ball,
but like in a football stadium, I haven't seen the
layout yet and what like, how do you even think, like, sure,
let's do that.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
For the baseball players. I know this, it's backyard baseball.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
The games online you see all these things where like
the fields aren't perfect, the dimensions aren't exactly what you want,
but you have ninety feet in between each base you
have sixty feet six inches from pitchers mound home plate.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Yeap, that's all that the players care about. That's all
we need. That's all you need to play a game
and put on a show for the fans.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
So for the football stadiums, yeah, there's gonna be a
short portion, right, Yeah, it's gonna be two hundred and
twenty feet or two hundred and thirty feets, So whatever
it is, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day,
battle between pitcher, hitter and all the position players and
all reay to do is adjust the defensive positions a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
But other than that, we're playing baseball. That's gonna be wild.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, the dream of putting it in a football stadium
was a massive ask and a huge It took a
lot of very smart people to get into a room
and really lay it out. But Tampa was our first
football stadium that we played in this year, which we
weren't even supposed to play there. Unfortunately, what happened to
the Tropicana Field, Like, we're supposed play at the trop
(15:14):
and Clemson was going to be our first football stadium,
and thank goodness it was. It was Tampa. But what
we learned was that it's possible. You know, everybody's like,
there's gonna be thirty home runs with the short porch
and turned out to only be three. Now, granted, we
go to Clemson and we bring the left field line
in a little bit more and there's eleven home runs. Darn.
People love to see the long ball. It doesn't really matter.
(15:34):
But it's doable, and it's I think the toughest part
is just making sure that everybody feels like they got
a great show. And so the person that's sitting the
furthest away in dead center field, that's, you know, five
hundred feet away from home plate, how are they going
to get the exact same show as the person that's
sitting right behind home plate. And so the utilization of
the video boards and you know, sending characters up there
(15:56):
to like really go say hello and make a kid's
day up there. That once we realized how easy that
piece was, the baseball took care of itself. Like we
truly looked from the outside in and put ourselves in
our fans shoes. Because once we put ourselves in our
fans shoes, it made it very clear, like, all right,
the one thing that we're going to hear is that
it's too big. And once we were able to really
(16:16):
combat that with putting people up in the upper decks
and doing performances in the upper decks and setting our
band on you know, a scavenger hunt around the field.
You know, it was we were really able to hone
in on creating fans first moments, and then the baseball
just took care of itself.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
It's so sick, man, and watching people react to like
the announcement of the show, the game coming, and the
announcement of tickets on sale. It, I mean, it's everything
you guys do feels like an event before.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
You even come to town. Is that intentional.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yeah, absolutely, I think the demand is absolutely a big
piece of it. What we've been able to do on
social media is the heart and soul of what we do.
You know, that is the thing that has really taking
us from one level to the next. But you know,
we pay zero dollars in traditional marketing. We don't do
the advertisements. We don't do the you know, the random
(17:09):
Facebook ad that you'll see and gets annoying, or the
YouTube last like, we don't do that kind of stuff.
We just show what We kind of show what you're missing, right.
It's like we're playing a game in in you know, Boston,
for example, We're going to show you everything that you
missed out in that game in Boston. And that way,
by the time you see that we're coming to your city,
it's like, oh my gosh, I have to go see
(17:30):
the binanda.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's genius too, because if you look at every sports franchise,
you're going to see a static post that was pre
scheduled by some intern yep on a Tuesday in the
office to push ticket sales Friday for the weekend game.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yes, and it's going to be an image that has
nothing to do with the game.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
YEP.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Maybe just a logo, but like, don't tell me to
be there, show me why I should be pissed.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, they call the action posts like those are those
are what kill creativity and fun and so everything we
do when we post, we ask ourselves two questions, does
it make baseball fun? And is it fans? First? And
if they answered is no to either those questions, we're
not gonna post it. And so what we realized is
when we were doing call to action post where it's like, hey,
buy this t shirt, buy this ticket, buy this season ticket,
planned we realized our numbers went down, and they went
(18:15):
down fast. But when we showed fun, when we showed enjoyment,
when we showed our fans having fun, then the numbers
just took off again. And so it's truly that like
fear of missing out, like I have to be there,
I have to go to this game, and that's what's
built our our our wait list to be over three
million people at this point, and the opportunity to get
tickets is so slim because of that number.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
How how do you keep people from getting pissed off?
Because sports pss pisces people off?
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Weather, weather, Yeah, well what are you gonna do. Yeah,
you can't make everybody happy, and that's it.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
And to be fair the game part aside as you're
talking fans first and you build a fan experience, you
have to be real with yourself that there's people aren't
gonna like.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
It, and people are gonna be mad at I pearist
are not going to be a fan.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
I mean, they're gonna be so hard headed.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
I had my college coach, I love him to death,
head over heels about him. He just turned the corner
and started asking me questions and started getting intrigued by
what I'm doing. But for the first three years of
me doing it, he could not stand it. Every time
I went back for the alumni game because I did
love him, I love him more than anything else. But
I would go back and he would just give me
(19:25):
so much crap. He would just he would he would
just ride me the whole time I was there.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
He wasted all that time exactly, and he would just
do that.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
But then he finally turned the corner and he saw
the level of talent that we had on the field
and the game that we were playing.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
He was like, this is actually really cool. And then
I started doing it.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
On the field with his players and just messing around
with trick players with their infielders.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
And he was like, that's really hard to do.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
I was like, yeah, we're not making the game easier,
We're making it harder for ourselves.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
So the last thing I want to ask you to
a family who who to come to a game didn't
get in the ticket process this time, you'll come back
to Nashville. You've come back already, right, So obviously this
is the market that you guys see success in.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
What do you say to them to.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Like, hey, be patient? Like, ye, be patient. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
The first thing I'd say is join the K Club.
I mean that is where our business is going for
the most part of Like, we want to build a
sense of community in our K Club, which is very
We based a lot of it off of the Dave
Matthews band and they're traveling fan club, Like they have
this massive fan club, right, and so we took a
lot of notes on what they did, and so we
built the K Club, which is where our die hard
(20:37):
fans have the ability to get first access to tickets.
These are the people that are like dying to get
to a game or have been to a game and
they have first access to tickets. That is the best
way to get in, and those are the right people
that should be getting tickets. You know, we see the
secondary market all the time, you know, we see the
StubHub prices, We see all of these not guaranteed tickets
(20:59):
and were the sob stories and they're really sad stories
all the time where like, you know, a family of
five showed up and they had tickets through stub Hub
and they actually don't have tickets, right, And it's really.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Hard only to realize that in on y'all. No, no,
not at all, and the and the secondary market it's brutal.
You've seen your you've seen your the money.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
That y'all are going to make, not that like you're
directly seeing a dollar off of a ticket, but that
the money that the bananas are going to make off
the ticket they have made, if you're seeing it on
the secondary market.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Like, yeah, it's probably not even there, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
And I see people get pissed off about like the
secondary market.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I'm like, dude, that's some clown in his mother's basement
trying to buy a new pair of Jordan's and you're
going to fund them.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
You know, I mean exactly, it's really sad. It's really
really sad. But the K Club specifically, I think that's
like step one, try to get into into the K Club.
We do it after every season, we'll post about it
like say, hey, join the K Club this day, that
that's the best way to get tickets. But then all
of our games are free on YouTube. We are the
first sports team ever to have an non exclusive deal
(22:00):
with ESPN to mean, which means that if we play
on ESPN, you can still watch our game for free
live on YouTube. We are non exclusive, which is insane,
which is wild to me because that's there.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
I feel like there's a lot of marketing dollars missed
by just giving the game away.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah yeah, I mean, it's it's what's fans first? You know,
our fans were used to watching the games on YouTube,
and when we have done it in the past where
we just played on ESPN, and all we heard from
a lot of our biggest fans was like, I don't
have cable, Like I literally don't. I don't want to
pay this extra fee to just watch your guys's games.
And we realize it wasn't fans first to just go
(22:37):
on ESPN or go on TNT or whatever it is.
And so our owner Jesse Cole and Jared our president,
where Adamant was like, if we are going to do this,
we are going to do a non exclusive and we
will put our games on YouTube for free. And eventually
ESPN came back and we're like, you know, we can't
turn a blind eye to it any longer, Like we
have to have you guys on and now that's how
you can see us. And so like, if you're not
(22:59):
watching on ESPN, watch on YouTube and create that community,
join the k club and were we are not slowing
down our travel to say the least. Like you might
not see the Bananas in your city, but you will
see Banana Ball specifically, and every single one of those
shows is going to be just as good, if not
better than the Banana show.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So I'm an opinion down and I'm hoping I can
levage our friendship on this. Will the Bananas be and
you don't get half to give me a date or whoever,
and not even the bananas. Will Banana Ball be played
in Nashville in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I honestly have no idea, but I will sell I
sure Hope. So I love obviously, I love Nashville.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I would be.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Surprised if we're not back in Nashville. This is one
of our best markets. Like we're very strategic on where
we placed our football stadiums, Like, there's obviously a demand
here in Nashville. So I'd be surprised if if we
weren't back in Nashville, but one of the teams will
be here, I would be stunned.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And to say the least, if we weren't awesome, Well,
enjoy your time in Nashville. Boys, thank you and thanks
for being here. Thanks for having us
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