Latest / Inside Country with Wayne D / Nashville is Going BANANAS

Transcript

Nashville is Going BANANAS · Inside Country with Wayne D

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's fine. Listen.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: They have gone from what the hell is that? To
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: iconic in a very short amount of time. Repping the
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Savannah Bananas.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I got my man, Zach. Here we go way back.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: What's up, Zach?
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: Way back?
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: How you doing? Life is good?
• 0:12
  Speaker 4: Man?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: And we got dust and Dusty play second base for
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: the Bananas. Go ahead and slide up a little closer.
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: There.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: First of all, before I get to you and how
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: the game comes together? How the hell does the Savannah
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Bananas become your gig bro as a baseball player?
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I mean you have to have baseball talent, right, Yeah?
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: I played five years for college.
• 0:32
  Speaker 5: But then same story as ever, the baseball player get
• 0:35
  Speaker 5: hurt and kind of walk away from the game. And
• 0:37
  Speaker 5: then two years later, me and the wife were sitting
• 0:39
  Speaker 5: on the couch and she saw a video and it
• 0:42
  Speaker 5: was one of their dances they did.
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: She's like, that'd be hilarious to see you do it,
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: So do you think you could?
• 0:45
  Speaker 5: I was like, I don't know, and I went online,
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: found a form to sign up, and then four years later,
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: I'm still doing it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Did you ever think a baseball tryout would involve shaking
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: your hips?
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: No? That first try out threw me for a loop
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: so fast it was.
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: It was so shocking, and then once you get into
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: it for about a year, you just buy in and
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: it's just the best job in your life.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like, I could turn a double plate to like, yeah,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: but can you do the worm?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: You're like, who the Okay?
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: I don't know why?
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: That's relevant for sure?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah why not? So how long have you been with
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the bananas en?
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: So this is my fourth year? Come on right now.
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: I picked up in the summer series of twenty twenty three,
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: I believe, and I've been on the party animals as
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: their second basement left for Khan, drinking beer and having
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: a good time.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: That's so wild, And it's funny because if you look
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: at the business model behind this, not many businesses flourished
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: from COVID. It's almost like COVID happened and like it
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: set y'all on fire.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, COVID was kind of the thing that catapulted
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: what is banana BA. So obviously we were playing in
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: the Coastal Plain League and there's only a couple teams
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: that were able to play, and so we had the
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: opportunity to play, but we didn't have anybody to play,
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: and so that birthed into the party, animals playing, and
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: this idea of banana which had very early life at
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: that point, Like the first game was in twenty eighteen
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: behind closed doors, and then twenty twenty happened and banana
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Ball really started to take off, and that's when we realized, wait,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: this might be the future of what the Savannah bananas
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: are well.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: And so for people that aren't familiar and if I
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: hear somebody that's never gone.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: They're like, oh, it's like the Harlem Globetrotters baseball. Was
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that ever?
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: He's like, I mean, was there any inspiration drawn from
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: how they do their thing?
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: No, disrespect to the Globetrotters. That's more like just family
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: entertainment straight up.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Where you guys, you're a show. They're entertainment. You're a show.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I mean the Globetrotters were selling out massive stadiums,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: similar to how we are. You know, they revolutionized basketball
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: very early on. You know, they invented the dunk. There
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: were people that were playing with the Globetrotters instead of
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: going to the NBA. Then obviously the NBA turned into
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: a league and started to gear more towards to what
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: it is now and with the Globe Trunters did is
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: they realized that they could take the exact same product
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: and put it into four different locations at any given
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: time and do the same thing. And that's when the
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Generals were birthed. And the Generals never won. And we
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: take a lot of pride in Yeah, it takes pride
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: in what we do because our games aren't fixed. As
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: much as I love to say I could scriptating a fastball,
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: it's impossible, Like, it is very difficult to do, and
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: it's impossible. And so we you know, from there that
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: birthed the Party Animals who ended up winning the twenty
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: twenty one Tour. They're currently winning the twenty twenty five Tour.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: You know, they are insanely talented and they win multiple
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: games and they are, you know, the best team in
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: the league this year. So it's absolutely a difference, but
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: it's very much similar in that show element.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: How baseball is probably arguably one of the most respected
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: America's past time. Yeah at baseball. I grew up a
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: massive Minnesota Twins fan. Yeah, so I know what it's
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: likes to get kicked in the privates regularly as a sportsman.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: But how do you I'd imagine respecting the base unintended
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: of what baseball is is important to still. So how
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: do you, guys make sure that you're you know, protecting
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: that part of the game.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: You play the game the right way.
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: I mean, so everyone's going to look at the dances,
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: and you look at the trick plays and all these
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: other things, but if you look at the actual core.
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: And this is a lot I've got a lot of
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: comments from past coaches that have seen the game.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: I've got a lot of past teammates that have come
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: and watched.
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: They say, at the heart of it, if you look
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: past the dances, you look past the choreographed celebrations, you'll
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: see really, really, really good baseball being played at the
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: same exact time we just played on there a little
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: bit different parameters, so games faster and baseball you take
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: your time. But now they're starting to speed it up.
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: They're starting to try to speed up their game.
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: It's just we we just tweaked it. And if you
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: really look into the heart of.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: The game, you can see the same things that everyone
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: love about baseball.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: You find it in our game.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: It kind of just gets covered up with all the
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: all the dances and stuff.
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: But when you go.
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: And watch a game, watching between the lines and you'll
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: see the same amazing game of baseball being played.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: It's wild to me that that you you, Zach, you
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: pushed like it's not fixed. Like these guys sure that
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: when the music's gonna hit, the choreography, the entrances, the celebrities.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Being added, like that's all.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: But like at the end of the day, the scoreboard
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: is gonna be whatever the scoreboard is gonna be.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, these guys want to win, like there's no
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: doubt about it. They want to win. They go in
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: every single day with the mentality that we are going
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: to win this game. And it's super important for the
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: validity of Banana Ball as a whole because as we
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: grow into the next coming years. You know, we've already
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: announced our Banana Ball Championship League, which is coming next year.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: So we're gonna have six teams playing. You can't fix
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: a league like if that's when everything goes out the window,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: and so any of those teams can come out with
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: the championship at the end of next year. And so
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: as we build into this league, it's super important that
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: we won get very clear in what banana ball is.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: It is a very fresh sport and to build a
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: sport is not easy, and so being very clear on
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: what the rules are and all the little intricacies, but
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: then also understanding what makes us unique and special. You know,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: the Savannah Banana is as a whole. The reason that
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: they are where they are is because of that entertainment value.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: And so every single one of those shows. When the
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Party Animals go on their headlining tour this year, and
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: the Firefighters go on their headlining tour and the Tailgaters
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: go on their headlining tour, each show has to be
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: distinctly different but also keep that same level of entertainment
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: that makes the Savannah Bananas special.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: It's and it's wild because the entertainment aspect of Again,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I grew up, baseball was number one, man, my number
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: one love. As I got older, baseball, straight up traditional
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: baseball got boring as a fan.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: To play great, but like to sit as a fan.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, Pitcher's dual is great, you know, but at
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: the same time, it's like, if I go to the bathroom,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to miss a lot, right.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Especially as a toy. That's funny, doesn't so.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: But but it's funny because you look at what you
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: guys have built, and there's like any anybody I talked to,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: anybody I've met, obviously seeing your passion for it, Like
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: it's wild how you have pumped fresh blood into a
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: game that I mean, you brought up the changes right,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: making the game faster. The game was dying a slow death.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: So how has major League Baseball received banana Ball or
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: they kind of like.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, at first it was it was a little bit
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: of a challenge. I don't think there was any sort
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: of animosity or bad blood, but uh, we're playing in
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: their facilities, Like we're selling out major league stadiums, and.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: I was gonna say, if.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: We can't, if we can't go in there, like if
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Major League Baseball had something against us, we wouldn't be
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: playing in those facilities. We understand that the games can
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: be different, like we always here's like you're ruining baseball,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: your X, Y and Z all this stuff, but it's
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: like yeah, from ve, yeah exactly, Yeah, absolutely, these two
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: things can coexist. Right. You can have Major League Baseball
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: and the baseball peeris, but you can also have banana
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Ball and understand what it's for and the entertainment value
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: and so uh, the fact that we've created a relationship
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: between us and Major League Baseball is huge and I
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: think that it's something that will grow in the future
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Dustin, what do your anybody that you went to college with?
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Are they in Major League Baseball right now?
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: I have a couple of guys that I've played with
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: and they all they all reach out to me and
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: are they.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: Like are you serious?
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: Well, they like they look.
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: They call me and they say, hey, I see it
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: coming to our stadium. I'm like, yeah, we are. And
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: he's like, can I get a ticket? I can't get one.
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: I'm like, it's your stadium.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: Do you think? Like they didn't say any side.
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: I was like, I'll find a way to get you there.
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: But it's just yeah, they're they're dumbfounded. Of the guys
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: that are on the long track, I got a guy
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: to Bias Myers.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: He pitches for the Brewers. I just talked to him,
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: I think a couple of.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: Weeks ago, and he's pitching for the Brewers in their
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: starting rotation. And I know that the I believe we
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: were contact of actually going there, and I don't know
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: if anything worked out or but I don't really know
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: about anything like that. But he was like, I saw
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: you guys might be coming here. I saw you guys
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: were in town for the Milkman a couple of years ago.
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: He's like, I got to get out to a game.
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: I'm like, dude, I want to get to your game.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: You take it to your game.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: I'm like, so, it's kind of funny that we bounce
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: things off each other, like they love our game that
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: we play, but then also as baseball players, we're all
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: fans of their game, so it's we like to bounce it.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: Off each other.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: And it's funny because as if you watch social media
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: or you watch obviously, ESPN did the feature about y'all.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: You guys, the party animals are painted like you're the
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: bad team, right, You're the You're you're the cowboy and
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: the black hat and the bananas are the white hat cowboy.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Uh So, whenever you're like.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, I played banana ball showed up you play
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: with the bananas, You're like, oh I played in there.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Go oh do you get that?
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: You make it so much easier if you just say
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: you play for the bananas. You can try, and you
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: can try and tell them and they're like, what's the difference,
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: And they're like, oh, we're all under one umbrella. It's
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: two different teams. But it's just Hey, we're part of
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: that black and pink team. We're the other guys, and
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: we love I will speak for the whole team.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: We love being the.
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: Other guys because it just it kind of takes the
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: stress of being like the star.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: Of the show.
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: You can be the other guy that we're going to
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: cause chaos and that's what our job is to do.
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: So we're going to do it to the best of
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: our ability.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: As much as it's a game, it's equally a show,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: and and a show has a curtain. Everything in front
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: of the curtain is awesome, perfect, and I'm so lucky
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: and the fans are having a great time behind the curtain.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to shoot this straight. Sometimes sh it sucks, right.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: So for each of you, as you know, as developing
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: the game and the entertainment and as a player, what's
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: something behind the scenes that a fan might not realize,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Like that's a really not that anything sucks like we do,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: but there are Daisy, wake up and be like, damn
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: what what our challenges are are. What are things that
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: that fans might not realize that are like this part
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: really kind of sucks.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't say it's.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well just straight up, like straight up, it is hard.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: What we do, like being able to take everything. We
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: developed our own ticket systems, we sell our own merch
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: we bring in all of our own equipment, We take
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: our broadcast, we brought our broadcast. Everything is in house.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: We took every variable and brought it in house. And
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: that is really hard to do. You know. Obviously, the travel,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: like you said, is awesome, and you get to see
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: all these amazing places, but to be able to take
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: a baseball field and put it into a football stadium
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: and then bring all of your equipment on the road
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: is incredibly difficult. In figuring out the logistics behind that
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: and the amount of planning that goes into it is
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: really really difficult. And I think that's something that gets
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: overlooked a lot of just truly how difficult it is
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: to take our show that was built in a five
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: thousand seat stadium and put it in front of eighty
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: one thousand in Clemson. You know, it's just so different,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: and so that's probably the the hardest part. That's like
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: the like the toughest part to get out of bed.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: But it's also the part that's like, you know, this
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: is what makes it special, Like that is the part
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: that really gets you going at the end of the day.
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: And Dustin, what about too, I'd say for me, it's
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: separating the baseball performance and the whole fans first aspect
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: of being making those interactions.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: So you have a rough down the field, let's say
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: you go over four.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: You have to now turn around and you got to
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: put that baseball performance aside and you have to go
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: make those interactions with the fans.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: You got to make a fans night.
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: It's as you go through it, you learn, hey, this
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: is part of the job. Whether you did well, whether
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: you struggled, it doesn't matter. The fans are what's important
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: in all this. So it took a while. I've gotten better.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: A lot of the guys have gotten better about Hey,
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: maybe you struggle today, but there's fans that are here
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: that won't even know what your stat line is. They
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: won't even care what you did in the game. So
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: you're here to see you and they want an interaction
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: with you.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: So if you.
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: Can't stop moping in the background, get your butt out
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: there and make a memory for a fan. At that point,
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: learning that and kind of maneuvering your way into a
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: good position to be in, that's where it was hardest
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: for me at least, and I know a lot of
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: the guys also would agree with it. It's just kind
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: of hey, baseball, I know, competitive juices get flown. You
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: really upset, you shruggled, You've kind have just blown the
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: safe to get up the game, or you might have
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: like made an air that cost the game. Fans don't care.
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: They got an amazing show. They want to see you now.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: So now it's time to do your real job, which
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: is go out there and make a memory. So learning
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: that and kind of understanding that and taking it as
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: taking it as like taking it to heart, that was.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Kind of the hardest thing for me. I see proud
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: wife face over there. So that's a good answer. Good answer.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: So when it comes to playing baseball in a football stadium, yeah,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: I will I will say no disrespect to Will Levis
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: and the boys across the river, but you're gonna have
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: more people in that venue than they had all year.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: How does the game change for you? Guys.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, at the end of the day, if there's
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: grass and there's any form of dirt and things that
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: look like basis maybe paper plates, like you're playing ball,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: but like in a football stadium, I haven't seen the
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: layout yet and what like, how do you even think, like, sure,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: let's do that.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: For the baseball players. I know this, it's backyard baseball.
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: The games online you see all these things where like
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: the fields aren't perfect, the dimensions aren't exactly what you want,
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: but you have ninety feet in between each base you
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: have sixty feet six inches from pitchers mound home plate.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: Yeap, that's all that the players care about. That's all
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: we need. That's all you need to play a game
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: and put on a show for the fans.
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: So for the football stadiums, yeah, there's gonna be a
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: short portion, right, Yeah, it's gonna be two hundred and
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: twenty feet or two hundred and thirty feets, So whatever
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: it is, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day,
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: battle between pitcher, hitter and all the position players and
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: all reay to do is adjust the defensive positions a
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: little bit.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: But other than that, we're playing baseball. That's gonna be wild.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the dream of putting it in a football stadium
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: was a massive ask and a huge It took a
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: lot of very smart people to get into a room
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: and really lay it out. But Tampa was our first
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: football stadium that we played in this year, which we
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: weren't even supposed to play there. Unfortunately, what happened to
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: the Tropicana Field, Like, we're supposed play at the trop
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: and Clemson was going to be our first football stadium,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: and thank goodness it was. It was Tampa. But what
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: we learned was that it's possible. You know, everybody's like,
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: there's gonna be thirty home runs with the short porch
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: and turned out to only be three. Now, granted, we
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: go to Clemson and we bring the left field line
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: in a little bit more and there's eleven home runs. Darn.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: People love to see the long ball. It doesn't really matter.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: But it's doable, and it's I think the toughest part
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: is just making sure that everybody feels like they got
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: a great show. And so the person that's sitting the
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: furthest away in dead center field, that's, you know, five
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: hundred feet away from home plate, how are they going
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: to get the exact same show as the person that's
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: sitting right behind home plate. And so the utilization of
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: the video boards and you know, sending characters up there
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: to like really go say hello and make a kid's
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: day up there. That once we realized how easy that
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: piece was, the baseball took care of itself. Like we
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: truly looked from the outside in and put ourselves in
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: our fans shoes. Because once we put ourselves in our
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: fans shoes, it made it very clear, like, all right,
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: the one thing that we're going to hear is that
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: it's too big. And once we were able to really
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: combat that with putting people up in the upper decks
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: and doing performances in the upper decks and setting our
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: band on you know, a scavenger hunt around the field.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: You know, it was we were really able to hone
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: in on creating fans first moments, and then the baseball
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: just took care of itself.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: It's so sick, man, and watching people react to like
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: the announcement of the show, the game coming, and the
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: announcement of tickets on sale. It, I mean, it's everything
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: you guys do feels like an event before.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: You even come to town. Is that intentional.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I think the demand is absolutely a big
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: piece of it. What we've been able to do on
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: social media is the heart and soul of what we do.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: You know, that is the thing that has really taking
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: us from one level to the next. But you know,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: we pay zero dollars in traditional marketing. We don't do
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: the advertisements. We don't do the you know, the random
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: Facebook ad that you'll see and gets annoying, or the
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: YouTube last like, we don't do that kind of stuff.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: We just show what We kind of show what you're missing, right.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: It's like we're playing a game in in you know, Boston,
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: for example, We're going to show you everything that you
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: missed out in that game in Boston. And that way,
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: by the time you see that we're coming to your city,
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: it's like, oh my gosh, I have to go see
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: the binanda.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: That's genius too, because if you look at every sports franchise,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: you're going to see a static post that was pre
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: scheduled by some intern yep on a Tuesday in the
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: office to push ticket sales Friday for the weekend game.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, and it's going to be an image that has
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with the game.
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: YEP.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Maybe just a logo, but like, don't tell me to
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: be there, show me why I should be pissed.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: I wasn't.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they call the action posts like those are those
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: are what kill creativity and fun and so everything we
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: do when we post, we ask ourselves two questions, does
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: it make baseball fun? And is it fans? First? And
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: if they answered is no to either those questions, we're
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: not gonna post it. And so what we realized is
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: when we were doing call to action post where it's like, hey,
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: buy this t shirt, buy this ticket, buy this season ticket,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: planned we realized our numbers went down, and they went
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: down fast. But when we showed fun, when we showed enjoyment,
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: when we showed our fans having fun, then the numbers
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: just took off again. And so it's truly that like
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: fear of missing out, like I have to be there,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: I have to go to this game, and that's what's
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: built our our our wait list to be over three
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: million people at this point, and the opportunity to get
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: tickets is so slim because of that number.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: How how do you keep people from getting pissed off?
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Because sports pss pisces people off?
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Weather, weather, Yeah, well what are you gonna do. Yeah,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: you can't make everybody happy, and that's it.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: And to be fair the game part aside as you're
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: talking fans first and you build a fan experience, you
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: have to be real with yourself that there's people aren't
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: gonna like.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: It, and people are gonna be mad at I pearist
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: are not going to be a fan.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, they're gonna be so hard headed.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: I had my college coach, I love him to death,
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: head over heels about him. He just turned the corner
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: and started asking me questions and started getting intrigued by
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: what I'm doing. But for the first three years of
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: me doing it, he could not stand it. Every time
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: I went back for the alumni game because I did
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: love him, I love him more than anything else. But
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: I would go back and he would just give me
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: so much crap. He would just he would he would
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: just ride me the whole time I was there.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: He wasted all that time exactly, and he would just
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: do that.
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: But then he finally turned the corner and he saw
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: the level of talent that we had on the field
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: and the game that we were playing.
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: He was like, this is actually really cool. And then
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: I started doing it.
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: On the field with his players and just messing around
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: with trick players with their infielders.
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: And he was like, that's really hard to do.
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: I was like, yeah, we're not making the game easier,
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: We're making it harder for ourselves.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: So the last thing I want to ask you to
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: a family who who to come to a game didn't
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: get in the ticket process this time, you'll come back
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: to Nashville. You've come back already, right, So obviously this
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: is the market that you guys see success in.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: What do you say to them to.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Like, hey, be patient? Like, ye, be patient. Yeah.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: The first thing I'd say is join the K Club.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: I mean that is where our business is going for
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: the most part of Like, we want to build a
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: sense of community in our K Club, which is very
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: We based a lot of it off of the Dave
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Matthews band and they're traveling fan club, Like they have
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: this massive fan club, right, and so we took a
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: lot of notes on what they did, and so we
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: built the K Club, which is where our die hard
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: fans have the ability to get first access to tickets.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: These are the people that are like dying to get
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: to a game or have been to a game and
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: they have first access to tickets. That is the best
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: way to get in, and those are the right people
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: that should be getting tickets. You know, we see the
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: secondary market all the time, you know, we see the
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: StubHub prices, We see all of these not guaranteed tickets
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: and were the sob stories and they're really sad stories
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: all the time where like, you know, a family of
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: five showed up and they had tickets through stub Hub
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: and they actually don't have tickets, right, And it's really.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Hard only to realize that in on y'all. No, no,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: not at all, and the and the secondary market it's brutal.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: You've seen your you've seen your the money.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: That y'all are going to make, not that like you're
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: directly seeing a dollar off of a ticket, but that
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: the money that the bananas are going to make off
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: the ticket they have made, if you're seeing it on
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: the secondary market.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Like, yeah, it's probably not even there, to be honest.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: And I see people get pissed off about like the
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: secondary market.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: I'm like, dude, that's some clown in his mother's basement
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: trying to buy a new pair of Jordan's and you're
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: going to fund them.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: You know, I mean exactly, it's really sad. It's really
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: really sad. But the K Club specifically, I think that's
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: like step one, try to get into into the K Club.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: We do it after every season, we'll post about it
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: like say, hey, join the K Club this day, that
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: that's the best way to get tickets. But then all
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: of our games are free on YouTube. We are the
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: first sports team ever to have an non exclusive deal
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: with ESPN to mean, which means that if we play
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: on ESPN, you can still watch our game for free
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: live on YouTube. We are non exclusive, which is insane,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: which is wild to me because that's there.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: I feel like there's a lot of marketing dollars missed
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: by just giving the game away.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I mean, it's it's what's fans first? You know,
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: our fans were used to watching the games on YouTube,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: and when we have done it in the past where
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: we just played on ESPN, and all we heard from
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: a lot of our biggest fans was like, I don't
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: have cable, Like I literally don't. I don't want to
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: pay this extra fee to just watch your guys's games.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: And we realize it wasn't fans first to just go
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: on ESPN or go on TNT or whatever it is.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: And so our owner Jesse Cole and Jared our president,
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: where Adamant was like, if we are going to do this,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: we are going to do a non exclusive and we
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: will put our games on YouTube for free. And eventually
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: ESPN came back and we're like, you know, we can't
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: turn a blind eye to it any longer, Like we
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: have to have you guys on and now that's how
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: you can see us. And so like, if you're not
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: watching on ESPN, watch on YouTube and create that community,
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: join the k club and were we are not slowing
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: down our travel to say the least. Like you might
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: not see the Bananas in your city, but you will
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: see Banana Ball specifically, and every single one of those
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: shows is going to be just as good, if not
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: better than the Banana show.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: So I'm an opinion down and I'm hoping I can
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: levage our friendship on this. Will the Bananas be and
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: you don't get half to give me a date or whoever,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: and not even the bananas. Will Banana Ball be played
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: in Nashville in twenty twenty six.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: I honestly have no idea, but I will sell I
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: sure Hope. So I love obviously, I love Nashville.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: I would be.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: Surprised if we're not back in Nashville. This is one
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: of our best markets. Like we're very strategic on where
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: we placed our football stadiums, Like, there's obviously a demand
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: here in Nashville. So I'd be surprised if if we
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: weren't back in Nashville, but one of the teams will
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: be here, I would be stunned.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: And to say the least, if we weren't awesome, Well,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: enjoy your time in Nashville. Boys, thank you and thanks
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: for being here. Thanks for having us