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

About this episode

Jesse Cole discusses how he built the Savannah Bananas and the importance of prioritizing fan experience in entertainment.

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…

People in this episode

Host: Simon Sinek

Guest: Jesse Cole

Topics covered

• fan experience
• entertainment
• baseball
• business success
• innovation
• community engagement

Keywords

• Savannah Bananas
• Banana Ball
• fan experience
• entertainment
• community
• innovation
• business success

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Savannah Bananas, Banana Ball League, Disney

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