What Can Knoxville Learn From Banana Ball?

About a year ago, I shared an earnest question on IOK’s Facebook page: Why couldn’t the Knoxville Smokies be more like the Savannah Bananas? 

We could be … wait for it … the Knoxville Kudzu. 

Readers were quick to educate and adjudicate. First, it’s two totally separate leagues, each with its own objectives. Fair. But from there the online discussion, between baseball purists and people wondering how we too might get a lil slice of that banana pie, got interesting. How do you balance tradition with innovation? 

Fast forward to last week, when the Savannah Bananas came to town (not saying I manifested this, but maybe). Packing Covenant Health Park and selling out Neyland Stadium, they delivered a high-speed fever dream alternating bursts of legit baseball with choreography, crowd work and absurdist comedy. 

Born in a mid-sized Southern city similar in some ways to our own, the Savannah Bananas’ journey from baseball oddity to cultural juggernaut is an inspiring story unto itself. Starting from scratch in a rundown ballpark, they created a unique concept that kept the sport’s core premise intact while dramatically reimagining how modern audiences engage with it. They rethought the rules, the pacing, the fan experience and the expectations. Importantly, they never stopped evolving. 

It wasn’t lost on me Saturday night that I was watching a masterclass in brand identity and lowering the barrier to entry. Case in point: me (clearly) not being a baseball person, I had only a foggy notion of what was going on most of the time. But by that final inning I was emotionally invested. 

Knoxville, whose sports culture has long revolved around the color orange, is in its own evolutionary moment. We’ve got a shiny new downtown stadium, home to a come-full-circle baseball team and a USL League One Champion soccer team that, until recently, had been couch surfing for years. Both are doing a fantastic job in the culture-building department, IMO, but the broader question of how non-UT sports fit into Knoxville’s urban fabric is still being worked out in real time.

Also, more broadly, Knoxville itself is in a period of evolution. Things are changing at a speed that can feel exhilarating or unsettling, depending on the day. The city is growing, the center core is getting denser, demographics are shifting, and with that comes an ongoing renegotiation of identity: Who are we? 

Before the Banana Ball game on Saturday, I had the opportunity for a brief one-on-one interview with Savannah Bananas founder and creator Jesse Cole. Mindful of his time and all the TV cameras lined up to talk to him, I came armed with just one question.

“Just one question? That’s a lot of pressure,” said the very energetic man standing before me in head-to-toe yellow.

What can Knoxville learn from Banana Ball? 

Jesse’s response:

“Ask, What makes you different? 

“So often people ask, ‘What are other teams doing? Let’s learn from them.’ They see another team’s promotion and think, ‘Let’s do something like that.’ But we didn’t learn how to do Banana Ball from someone else. We didn’t copy someone else. 

“We put ourselves in our customers’ shoes, our fans’ shoes, and asked, What would be remarkable? What would be unforgettable? What have we never seen on a baseball field before?

“Do one thing and do it better than anyone else. We obsess over the fan experience; we obsess over the show. 

“It’s the original thinking, and being willing to fail and try things that are hard. We’re willing to go out here and try every single day. There are probably things that will fail miserably tonight, and it’ll be hard to watch. But we’ll learn and move on to the next idea.

“Most people are afraid of taking those chances. That’s how you do something truly special: you keep trying new things.”

What Jesse is describing is a philosophy that applies far beyond sports. While there’s nothing wrong with following best practices, know what makes you authentically distinct, build relentlessly around that identity, and be brave enough to make mistakes in pursuit of innovation. 

That’s something I’m going to be simmering on myself, personally, professionally and civically, for a long time to come. 

P.S. Further reading: I highly recommend the inspiring Q&A “Peeling off failure: A conversation with Savannah Bananas creator Jesse Cole” by Rusty Odom over at Blank News. Also check out this entertaining Instagram reel featuring rookie sportscaster Sam Quinn from Knox Ooze. Knox News shared some great photos from night 1 here and night 2 here.