Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole got people talking last week after he set youth sports as his “next frontier” in social media posts.
So we asked around for some industry thoughts:
“This could be an amazing juggernaut depending on the direction they go,” said Route 27 Group’s Rick Abbott, who previously was the CEO of Cooperstown All-Star Village.
Abbott said he does not believe Banana Ball itself is transferrable to youth sports — it is a show put on by adults who are accomplished athletes and ballplayers and have performance ability (acting, dancing, singing, etc.)
“If he decided, for lack of a better term, to take on the Cooperstowns, Dreams Parks, Perfect Game and different things and do a youth baseball location, have them play baseball and sprinkle in the fun of Banana Ball and all of these other things that go along with it, I think he’s sitting on a gold mine,” Abbott said.
“If he decided to take on the big cats, I think with his creativity and their marketing, I would be very concerned he’s going to cut into more than a few people’s bottom lines.”
Another interesting thought from Abbott: Cole could use a traditional youth baseball platform as a pipeline to identify potential Banana Ball prospects when they reach high school age and then offer specialized training.
LENZ Sports Group co-founder Matt Wray thinks the best bet is a modified version focused on introducing younger kids to the sport outside of the traditional youth baseball calendar.
“The issue with this in my eyes is Banana Ball at a youth level, even watered down, is going to serve as an alternate sport type to traditional baseball,” he said. “If it begins pulling kids away from traditional baseball, then we are honestly just robbing Peter to pay Paul with participation numbers in the sport.”
Next Level Sports CEO Lance Smith said he is all for the Bananas’ involvement.
"The game needs something exciting, it needs energy,” he said. “Your right fielder can't be just out there to fill one of the on-field positions, they need to be engaged. If anyone can do that, or will focus on that for youth baseball, it certainly feels like the Bananas and Jesse Cole can do that. And in the end, that could be amazing for a game that has dipped at the youth level."
Former big leaguer Zach Lutz — one of the scheduled speakers at the Buying Sandlot summit — wrote on LinkedIn that while youth sports should absolutely be fun, that does not mean chaos.
“If platforms like Banana Ball can lower the barrier to entry and partner with people focused on teaching, standards, and development, we might actually move the needle. The goal isn’t backflips. The goal is kids who love the game enough to still be playing at 14, 17, 21 … and beyond.”
FWIW: A recent podcast interview with Bananas head coach Tyler Gillum could offer some clues — he echoed much of what Cole said about youth sports, but talked about kids playing baseball OR Banana Ball, not just the latter.
I will throw out another potential avenue — what if the Bananas helped subsidize youth sports on a large scale?
This is a $1B business that almost assuredly has businesses worth 10x, maybe even 100x or 1000x that, chomping at the bit to work with it.
The Bananas create/partner with traditional leagues that align with their values, pulling them together under an umbrella similar to Babe Ruth or Cal Ripken or Little League.
Major brands provide significant funding that removes access barriers. The leagues play it straight with some cosmetic tweaks — drippy uniforms, music, slight rule changes, etc. — and then funnel into a single-site Banana Ball World Series where all the magic is let loose.
Now that world be a serious threat to the Little League World Series throne.
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Good game.