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SAVANNAH, Ga. () — Get ready to go absolutely bananas – because the game that broke the internet is now breaking new ground. The sold-out 2026 Banana Ball City Selection Show airs live tonight from Savannah, unveiling the team’s biggest expansion yet.
From the outside of Grayson Stadium, it might look like just another quiet day in Savannah, but inside, it’s a totally different ballpark. The Bananas have transformed their home field into their biggest stage yet.
Banana Ball has come a long way from its humble beginnings in Savannah. In 2025, the Bananas played in 40 cities and took their game to NFL and NCAA stadiums. Now in 2026, they’re taking things even further. The 90-minute City Selection Show today will unveil which cities made the cut for next year’s Banana Ball Tour – and introduce two new teams, bringing the total to six.
It also marks the debut of the Banana Ball Championship League; the first-time games will be played not just for fun, but for a title.
Locations will be announced with more MLB, NFL, and college football stadiums tonight. While the Bananas have garnered quite the audience today will bring them new national attention.
“This is our first time ever that the selection show is on national TV. It’s the biggest event we’ve ever done. We’ve invested more in this than we invest in anything because we want it to be big. We want the fans to be excited because this sets the tone for 2026,” said Jesse Cole, the founder and owner of the Savannah Bananas.
The growth comes as Banana Ball’s popularity explodes, with nearly 4 million people now on the waitlist for tickets. You can watch the show live today at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2, ESPN+, Disney, and YouTube.
The concept of the team began with a risk, and each year, management decides to push that risk to the next level. With open arms, thousands of fans attend each game, reaffirming that these risks are worth it.
“Everything we do is an experiment… all innovation comes from iteration. You experiment something, you try it and then you keep pushing the envelope,” explained Cole.
Owner Jesse Cole says when the organization began almost a decade ago, the team was selling a few tickets each game. Today, the phenomenon of Banana Ball is a dream no one could have imagined back then.
“We feel proud. We were just a couple of kids that started here, and we were expected to fail. We only sold a handful of tickets and people expected us to be the next team in Savannah to fail, which we’re still here now. We’re taking this all over the country, in front of over 3 million fans, in some of the biggest stadiums in the world,” said Cole.
From their first local game right here in Savannah to sold-out shows in major stadiums across the country… Banana Ball has proven it can play – and sell out – anywhere.