Banana Ball is coming again! After a wildly successful (and almost entirely sold out) 2025 tour, the league is gearing up for a new road show next year.
You’ll note that we’ve called it “Banana Ball,” not “Savannah Bananas.” And that’s on purpose. While the league originally featured just two teams – the Savannah Bananas and their arch nemesis, the Party Animals – it has now expanded to become the “Banana Ball Championship League”, featuring six teams. In addition to the Bananas and Party Animals, the other teams include the Firefighters (created in 2023), Texas Tailgaters (2024), the Indianapolis Clowns (2026), and the Loco Beach Coconuts (2026).
The league will also add a “Banana Ball Open” tournament on April 16-19, and a playoff tournament on October 1-4, both to be played at Grayson Stadium in Savannah, Georgia.
The total schedule includes a whopping 179 regular-season games over seven months and will visit nearly 75 stadiums, including half of Major League Baseball’s ballparks.
New locations for 2026
Although eight of the 15 MLB stadiums the tour will stop in had Banana Ball last year, seven of them will get games for the first time in 2026. Those new stops include:
Chicago – Wrigley Field (3 games, Bananas vs. Firefighters)
Cleveland – Progressive Field (2 games, Party Animals vs. Clowns)
Dallas – Globe Life Field (3 games, Bananas vs. Tailgaters)
Detroit – Comerica Park (2 games, Firefighters vs. Party Animals)
Milwaukee – American Family Field (2 games, Party Animals vs. Coconuts)
Minneapolis – Target Field (3 games, Bananas vs. Coconuts)
Sacramento – Sutter Health Park (2 games, Party Animals vs. Tailgaters)
Football stadiums of note will include the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Kyle Field in College Station, Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, among others.
There will also be stops in a wide collection of minor league ballparks.
But wait: does this mean that Banana Ball doesn’t always include the Savannah Bananas?
Yes … that’s exactly what it means.
Here’s the reality: there’s so much ticket demand for Banana Ball that the only way to satisfy it is to create additional teams. More teams means more games that can be played, which means more fans will have access. After all, since most of these games are played on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, there simply aren’t enough days available in a year for the Bananas to play a 180-game weekend schedule.
So having more teams and games to entertain more fans is the good news. The bad news? Well, you’re not getting what many people would think is the “A-squad”, which is the Bananas. You know – the one with the players who have huge social media and YouTube followings, and the ones that the kids want to see.
So will this be a disappointment – especially to the younger fans?
Well, the mission for the Banana Ball organizers is to find a way to ensure each of these teams/games delivers the same level of entertainment and engagement as the original product. And from a technical standpoint (in our opinion), there wouldn’t seem to be any reason they can’t. There are certainly more than 30 baseball players in the country who can make the trick plays and can be good entertainers. The challenge will be making a connection between those newer players and the younger audience that doesn’t know who they are.
In addition, while most of the supporting cast is certainly duplicable, there’s only one Jessie Cole (the Bananas’ emcee and the league’s founder). Having seen Banana Ball in person, I can tell you that he’s a pretty integral part of the show. But again, that doesn’t mean that finding a qualified substitute is impossible.
Only time will tell if fans will feel any disappointment in not seeing the original Bananas squad. But unless you’re willing to travel, you’ll have to settle for whichever teams are playing in your city. The best thing to do is to talk to your kids about it before buying tickets, just to make sure they know what they’ll be getting.
So how will you know which team you’re paying to see?
That’s easy – just look at the schedule. It’s a little hard to read, but if you look at the combined schedule, the color denotes the home team, and the logo to the left denotes the away team.
The individual team schedules are a little easier to decipher.
Note: it doesn’t make any difference whether a team is “home” or “away” – the only thing that matters is which team is playing where.
How to get tickets via the lottery
Banana Ball uses a lottery system to distribute tickets, which is unquestionably the most direct way to get them. The lottery is already open, and the deadline to register is October 31 (no deadline time is given, so don’t wait until the last minute. We suggest registering by October 30). It doesn’t matter when you register – every entry has an equal chance of winning, as long as the entry is submitted prior to the deadline.
Tickets start at $35, and while the full price range hasn’t been disclosed, last year we didn’t notice general bowl tickets priced above $80. There may, however, be premium tickets offered that might exceed those numbers. But all in all, the Bananas pricing strategy is very fan/family friendly by today’s standards.
To sign up for the lottery, click here.
How to get tickets by joining the K Club
The league has a membership club which provides presale access to tickets (amongst other benefits). Unfortunately, membership in the club is closed until 2027. But if you’re looking towards the long term, it’s not a bad idea to join. The membership price was $59 for the 2025 season. At the current time, you can only register your interest for the 2027 Club, so you don’t even need to spend any money right now. For more details, click here for the official registration page.
What happens if you don’t win the ticket lottery?
Unfortunately, the demand for tickets far outstrips the supply, leaving many fans without access (though hopefully that will be less of a problem with the introduction of these new teams). There are often tickets on resale platforms such as StubHub, but at sizeable markups. Given the significant and predictable demand, Banana Ball could have made tickets non-transferable but fully returnable/refundable, which would have allowed the league to resell tickets at face value if ticketholders had a change in plans and could no longer attend. But alas, that’s not the case. Even though they warn ticket holders against reselling their tickets, so long as they are easily transferable, it’s bound to happen.
So, while resale platforms are not the preferred method of access, for many, it will be the only way to grab tickets.
Another option is to register during the lottery process for group tickets. If you have a group that wants to go, you might get lucky with the limited group tickets that Banana Ball offers.
Premium Seating options
Finally, if you have the financial means and friends with those same means, you can contact your ballpark/stadium’s premium seating department to ask about renting a suite or other premium area. Each stadium is responsible for selling its own premium options for Banana Ball, so you’d have to talk to them directly. A quick look at the Wrigley Field premium seating website (just as an example) shows that tickets for their Sunday Banana Ball game in July start as low as $265 per person if you purchase a 15-person suite. All things considered, that’s not a terrible price if you can swing it.
Banana Ball Doubleheader Digest
Are you wondering where you might be able to travel to Banana Ball and also see other sporting events on the same weekend? Well, we’ve looked at the schedule for every major city and found where you can see a doubleheader (or more). But keep in mind: additional events will be added, like MLS soccer, so we will update this list as necessary.
Anaheim / Los Angeles / San Diego
March 25: Los Angeles Clippers at Intuit Dome
March 26-28: Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium
March 26-28: San Diego Padres at Petco Park
March 27-28: Bananas vs. Clowns, Angel Stadium
March 27: Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena
March 28: Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena
Arlington, TX
September 22-24: Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field
September 25-26: Bananas vs. Tailgaters at Globe Life Field
Bowie / Baltimore
July 31-August 1: Clowns vs. Coconuts at Prince George’s Stadium
July 31-August 2: Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards
Chicago
July 24-26: Bananas vs. Firefighters at Wrigley Field
July 24-30: Chicago White Sox at Rate Field
Cincinnati
June 19-21: Bananas vs. Clowns at Great American Ball Park
June 22-24: Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park
Minneapolis
August 7-9: Bananas vs. Coconuts at Target Field
August 10-12: Minnesota Twins at Target Field
New Orleans
March 14-15: Bananas vs. Party Animals at Caesars Superdome
March 16: New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center
New York City
April 24-26: New York Mets at Citi Field
April 25-26: Bananas vs. Party Animals at Yankee Stadium
Orlando / Tampa Bay
May 29-30: Coconuts vs. Party Animals at ESPN Wide World of Sports
May 29-June 3: Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field
Phoenix
March 28: Phoenix Suns at Mortgage Matchup Center
March 28-29: Firefighters vs. Tailgaters at Salt River Fields
March 30-April 5: Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field
San Diego / Anaheim / Los Angeles
March 21: Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena
March 21-22: Bananas vs. Coconuts at Petco Park
March 22: Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center
March 23: Los Angeles Clippers at Intuit Dome
Bottom Line
If you want to see a Banana Ball game this year, you’ll have 180 of them to choose from in over 75 cities. Just be sure to register for the ticket lottery by October 31.
And if you’re traveling, this might be a good time to book a refundable hotel reservation. More and more people are traveling for Banana Ball, and you may get the best pricing and hotel choices by booking early. The booking window for all major hotel chains is already open through most of October 2026.
