Why This Baseball Team Has a 4.2 Million Person Waitlist With Savannah Bananas Founder Jesse Cole

A Bit of Optimism

The Optimism Company from Simon Sinek

Business, Education, Careers, Self-improvement

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We talk a lot about building successful things. But what does it actually take to build something people love? Jesse Cole has built an entirely new genre of entertainment: The Savannah Bananas and the Banana Ball League. They’re a viral sensation, selling out stadiums across the country, and have over 4.2 million fans on their ticket waitlist. On the surface, Banana Ball looks like a wild and entertaining version of baseball. But underneath it all is something much more disciplined: an obsession with the fan experience. Jesse calls his approach Fans First and it’s more than a slogan and the title of his book… It’s a standard. Every minute of the two-hour games are crammed with attention grabbing spectacle. It’s a full-blown live experience designed for every seat in the stadium: players dance, fans are part of the show, trick plays defy the laws of physics, there are multiple sing-alongs… all during an actual baseball game. In this conversation, we talk about building something new for others, from embracing years of failure (including selling just two tickets in the first three months), to creating experiences that make people feel included, joyful, and valued. We also discuss how he took inspiration from Disney and PT Barnum, the importance of affordable in-person experiences, and how his team reviews every single detail after every show to get better the next day. Because what Jesse’s building goes beyond just entertainment. It’s a place where people can feel seen for generations to come. And in a world that often moves too fast to build things with care… Those human details might be what matter most. This… is A Bit of Optimism. --------------------------- To learn more about the Banana Ball League or sign up for the ticket waitlist, check out: https://bananaball.com/ Or if you want all things Savannah Bananas, head to: https://thesavannahbananas.com/ ---------------------------

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're going to the nosebleeds and trying to understand the experience.
0:04.1	And you understand there is a front of stadium experience that is different and better. Nobody minds front of the stadium, but not at the expense of the back. Everyone's on the first class experience. They focus on that. Right. To go to the back and say, let's make this experience wonderful at this price range at this distance. How do we do that for you is unheard of? A term that you hear our team say it is win the upper deck.
0:22.5	We feel more purpose because it's like these people, these fans have waited two, three years for tickets. That's crazy. Our waitless is that long. They get their chance. If they go up there and they don't get to feel that interaction, you know, we say every night is someone's first show, every single night.
0:39.9	And so if it's their first show there, how do we make sure it's special? If you love sports,
0:44.1	or if you have children, or if you happen to like musical theater, then your algorithm is
0:48.8	probably feeding you videos of a baseball team dressed in bright yellow uniforms, doing things,
0:54.1	let's call it differently.
0:55.9	That's the Savannah Bananas.
0:57.8	And like the Harlem Globetrotters from the 1960s to professional wrestling through the 1980s,
1:03.3	what the Bananas founder Jesse Cole has done is created an entirely new genre of sports entertainment.
1:10.6	Jesse was a great ball player whose dreams of going pro didn't happen because of an injury,
1:15.4	but he still loved the game.
1:17.6	Sort of.
1:18.7	He found it boring, and so he changed it.
1:21.9	Obsessed with every detail of the experience, he started experimenting, teasing out ways to cram
1:27.0	excitement into every minute, and tailor the experience, he started experimenting, teasing out ways to cram excitement into every minute
1:28.9	and tailor the experience to fan enjoyment. The players spend hours with fans. They do trick
1:34.9	plays and choreographed dances, and it's all happening during a real baseball game. No matter where
1:41.0	they go in the country, they sell out stadiums. In fact, they have a four-year waiting list with over 4.2 million people waiting to get a ticket.
1:50.9	For Jesse, fans first isn't just a slogan or the title of his book.
1:55.3	It's a standard.
1:56.8	And maybe that's why it's working these days.
	...

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