Savannah Bananas has revealed its 2023 schedule as it takes its exhibition baseball show across the US.
The 2023 Banana Ball World Tour follows a decision made earlier this year to leave baseball’s Coastal Plain League in favour of playing the entertainment-focused variation of the sport on a year-round basis.
The 44-stop tour includes 12 games in the team’s hometown of Savannah, Georgia, with fixtures played in 20 other states between February and September.
The series begins with a two-game stop in West Palm Beach, Florida on February 17 and 18 and finishes in Cooperstown, New York on September 16. Las Vegas, Sacramento, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay and Nashville are among the host cities. Tickets for all games will go on sale a couple of months before they are played.
Team owner Jesse Cole said: “We believe in creating a show and experience that fans have never seen before and creating fans is where everything starts for us. And so, we know we’ve created thousands of fans here and we’re going to keep doing it here in Savannah, but there’s many more that want to see the bananas and banana ball so we’re going to bring it to them.”
Savannah Bananas won the Guest Experience prize at this year’s TheTicketingBusiness Awards.
The ‘fantastically and fanatically fan-centric’ team was founded in 2016 and has taken its quasi-abandoned home stadium in Savannah to full houses through its baseball+entertainment offer. There have been multiple sell-out crowds across the years and records broken for attendances.
The team, which twice won the Coastal Plain League, celebrate by performing dance routines to music from artists such as Britney Spears and Michael Jackson.
There are epic celebrations and a senior citizen dance team called The Banana Nanas, as well as the Man-Nanas, a dad cheerleading squad.