Savannah Bananas bring Banana Ball to The Trop in 2027

If you have never heard of Banana Ball, it is worth a quick look before you decide whether to enter the lottery. The Savannah Bananas, a professional barnstorming team out of Savannah, Georgia, are bringing their version of the game to St. Petersburg for two games on May 7 and May 8, 2027, at Tropicana Field, where they take on the Loco Beach Coconuts. This is their first actual appearance in St. Petersburg; they were originally set to play here in 2025, but hurricane damage to The Trop forced that game over to Tampa's Raymond James Stadium instead.

The catch is how you get in. Tickets are available only through a lottery that closes at midnight on October 31, 2026. Entering the lottery does not cost anything and does not commit you to buying tickets; if you are selected, the team contacts you directly with the next steps. If the lottery does not go your way, the next closest option is the midseason Banana Ball Open, a four-game round robin at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney in Orlando from April 15 to 18, 2027.

So, what exactly is Banana Ball? It is a fast-paced, fans-first version of baseball created by the Bananas, with the show and fan participation front and center. The format runs on 11 unique rules, including a two-hour time limit, no bunting, and fan catches that count as outs. The team is owned by Jesse and Emily Cole through Fans First Entertainment, which fields six independent professional teams in the Banana Ball Championship League: the Savannah Bananas, the Party Animals, the Firefighters, the Texas Tailgaters, the Loco Beach Coconuts, and the Indianapolis Clowns. The league motto is "Fans First. Entertain Always."

The Bananas started in 2016, arriving in Savannah as a college summer team in October 2015 with the goal of making baseball fun and bringing fans back to Historic Grayson Stadium. By January 2016, the team had overdrafted its bank account, and the Coles sold their home to keep it going. The name "Savannah Bananas" came out of a contest on February 25, 2016, and the resulting buzz landed them coverage from CBS, NBC, and Sports Illustrated, with SportsCenter naming it Logo of the Year. They won three Petitt Cup Championships during their collegiate run in 2016, 2021, and 2022, before leaving the Coastal Plain League in 2022 to play Banana Ball year-round. As of 2026, they are members of the BBCL.

A few names worth knowing: Dakota "Stilts" Albritton, the tallest baseball player in the world at 10 feet 9 inches on stilts, signed in 2021; Jocelyn Alo, the first woman to play for the Bananas, signed a one-month contract in 2024; and Kelsie Whitmore joined in August 2025. The team pulls in more than 14 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

The St. Pete games are part of a wider 2027 Florida tour that includes Orlando and Miami, and the season stretches beyond that, with games in Mexico and Canada and a World Tour Championship Bowl at the new Nissan Stadium in Nashville on September 25. And if you want the backstory, a music-driven documentary about Banana Ball is set to air on Disney+ and Hulu in fall 2027, directed by David Beilinson and produced by Words + Pictures and Ampersand, with 11 original songs by EGOT composers Pasek & Paul and others.