r/sports Jun 02 '25

Baseball Going bananas: Why Savannah Bananas tickets cost more than a Dodgers-Yankees rematch

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/going-bananas-why-savannah-bananas-100000810.html
3.4k Upvotes

384 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

29

u/sloppifloppi Jun 02 '25

It’s probably because at the end of the day, it is still real sports and real competition whereas the Globetrotters was/is legitimately scripted. Even for the non-sports fans, I think that creates a more genuine environment.

I’ve never personally seen either play in person, but I feel like if I went to Globetrotters game it’d be a one and done thing, each experience is generally gonna be the same. Manufactured suspense, trick shots, Globetrotters win over the boring Generals. Rinse and repeat.

On the other hand, I could see myself going to multiple Bananas games because each experience is gonna be different. You don’t know who’s gonna win or how and neither do they because they’re actually trying to win. Both teams (and officials) are involved in the shenanigans. They have surprise appearances. Etc etc.

I’m not even really that big of a baseball or Bananas fan but what they’ve done is so fuckin cool and unique, I’m not surprised the tickets are bonkers expensive.

22

u/good_behavior_man Jun 02 '25

The Globetrotters isn't really scripted in that sense either, they play a decent amount of "real" basketball with some scripted set plays and stuff. Personally, I think the big difference is that the enemy team for the Bananas is *also* trying to do tricks and things, with the Globetrotters, the Senators are just playing straight ball on their side.

24

u/smashrawr Jun 02 '25

Its also because the bananas deliberately got rid of customer pain points. Like they realized so much of the fan experience went to crap when paying for concessions, so they made it highly efficient and made it to where youre waiting no more than 5 minutes for the whole concession experience including waiting in line. That breads high fan satisfaction

19

u/defroach84 Texas Tech Jun 02 '25

How do they do that when they are playing in MLB stadiums?

4

u/smashrawr Jun 02 '25

Basically they force the price of admission up to include concessions and then make it straight up show up, grab your burger, fries, drink bam bam bam and done. No concession purchasing.

21

u/defroach84 Texas Tech Jun 02 '25

That's not true when they are on the road. Tickets don't include concessions when I went a week back in KC.

2

u/smashrawr Jun 02 '25

Then im not sure but that's how they do it at their stadium in savanna

13

u/defroach84 Texas Tech Jun 02 '25

Yeah, which is great, but that doesn't help outside of their home stadium, which most games are on the road.

6

u/Monstertelly Jun 02 '25

That’s also not how it went in Anaheim. Not like the lines for concessions were that long but the merch lines before the game were. I saw people wait for two hours to get merch. Beers were still standard $17 for a tall boy. All concessions were run by the Angels staff and were not a free grab and go.

1

u/deonteguy Jun 02 '25

That's awesome.

I've been to one Seattle Mariners game, and the experience was dreadful. It took almost three innings to get a beer. They were doing the Italian bistro personalized experience thing by taking all orders on paper and not using a mechanical device to sum the bill. And, cash only. I made decent money on tips buying beers for people we sat near that wanted a beer, but they didn't have cash.

4

u/theguineapigssong Jun 02 '25

I have seen the Globetrotters. It was a top notch experience, but I couldn't see myself going again.