How Jesse Cole Turned an Empty Ballpark Into an $80 Million Banana Empire
In 2016, the baseball diamond in Savannah, Georgia, looked more like a forgotten relic than a field of dreams. The team that played there, part of a collegiate summer league, was losing money, losing fans, and slowly fading into irrelevance. Seats sat empty. The games dragged on with little excitement. Baseball, at least in that stadium, felt like an afterthought.
Enter Jesse Cole—a former baseball player with no advertising agency, no Wall Street investors, and certainly no playbook for “how to build a sports empire.” What he did have was a bold vision, an unusual wardrobe choice (a bright yellow tuxedo), and an idea so simple that it turned the entire sport on its head: make baseball fun again.
Cole recognized something many traditionalists ignored. Fans claimed to love baseball, but attendance told a different story. Games were too long. Entertainment was thin. The younger generation wasn’t showing up. So he asked the question that would reshape not only his team but also how the world views the sport:
“What if baseball wasn’t just a game… but a show?”
With that, Banana Ball was born.
Cole and his wife, Emily, risked everything. They sold their house, maxed out credit cards, and lived on an air mattress just to keep the idea alive. What started as a desperate gamble transformed into a phenomenon that would draw millions of fans, inspire countless headlines, and eventually generate more than $80 million in value.
From Empty Seats to Sellouts
The results came quickly. In their 2016 debut season as the Savannah Bananas, the team averaged more than 3,600 fans per game—filling the once-empty stadium with energy and laughter. By season’s end, they had welcomed more than 90,000 fans and logged 18 sellouts.
But that was just the beginning.
Fast forward to 2023: the Bananas launched their “World Tour,” taking Banana Ball on the road to sold-out crowds across the country. Over half a million fans showed up that year alone. In 2025, the team shattered expectations by selling out Clemson’s Memorial Stadium—packing in 81,000 fans in just four hours. In Charlotte, they drew 148,000 people over two nights. The current waitlist to get tickets? A staggering 3.6 million people.
The Numbers Behind the Madness
Beyond the fun and flair, the business case is staggering. A sellout at Savannah’s 4,000-seat Grayson Stadium generates more than $2.1 million in ticket sales. On the road, a single game in Indianapolis brought in $356,000 from tickets and $744,000 in total revenue once merchandise and concessions were added. Even in the early years, games were pulling in $100,000 to $200,000 each, thanks to a blend of promotions and viral attention.
And the internet? The Bananas conquered that, too. With more than 10 million TikTok followers, they’ve outpaced Major League Baseball’s entire social media presence. Their rival touring team, the Party Animals, has built its own base of 3 million fans. Together, they’ve turned what was once a niche summer league into one of the most visible brands in sports entertainment.
Reinventing the Rules of Baseball
What makes Banana Ball irresistible is its blend of tradition and disruption. The fundamentals of baseball are still there—pitches, hits, outs, home runs—but Cole wasn’t afraid to rewrite the rulebook:
Games are capped at two hours.
Fans catching foul balls? That counts as an out.
Batters can’t step out of the box.
Bunts are banned.
And between innings? Expect dance-offs, conga lines, and even a pitcher on stilts.
The result is fast-paced, high-energy entertainment where every minute matters. It’s part baseball, part circus, part Broadway musical. Above all, it’s an experience families, kids, and casual fans can’t wait to be part of.
Lessons Beyond the Ballpark
The Savannah Bananas didn’t invent baseball. They reinvented how people connect with it. By listening to what the audience actually craved—energy, community, and joy—Jesse Cole proved that even the most “traditional” industries can be transformed with creativity and courage.
The takeaway? You don’t have to create something brand new. You just have to take something people already love, strip away what makes it dull, and inject it with life.
For baseball, that meant turning nine innings into a show that feels more like a festival than a game. For Cole, it meant turning an empty ballpark into the headquarters of an $80 million empire—one banana at a time.