Fandom Unpacked

Fans First, Entertain Always: How The Savannah Bananas Turn Baseball Into Joy

• Situation • Season 1 • Episode 21

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What if a sports team stopped selling your attention and started earning your trust? We sit down with Emily Cole, whose company, Fans First Entertainment, owns the Savannah Bananas, to unpack how putting fans first can flip an entire industry. From all-in ticket pricing and ad-free outfields to a face-value resale platform that prioritizes local families, Emily shows how clear principles lead to bold choices and unforgettable nights.

We explore what “partnership” means when logos aren’t plastered on every wall and value flows to the guest first. Culture sits at the core: hiring for hungry, humble, and smart creates a team that thrives on autonomy, learns relentlessly, and treats every city with care. Emily’s quiet moments during every national anthem become a compass for the work; thousands choosing to spend their time and money with you is a responsibility, not a metric.

Beyond the field, we dive into Bananas Foster, their joy-first initiative that celebrates foster families at every game, turning applause into awareness and action through local connections. And because they love doing the opposite of normal, the Bananas even bring fans together at sea with a multi-day cruise designed for deeper community. Along the way, Emily addresses misconceptions about “overnight” success, why they keep prices accessible despite demand, and how measuring people served beats watching the bank balance.

If you’re craving a roadmap for fan experience, meaningful partnerships, and community that lasts, this conversation delivers play-by-play insight. Follow and share the show, and leave a review so more curious fans can find it. 

Recorded Tuesday, December 9th, 2025
Hosts: Damian Bazadona, CEO & Founder, Situation & Maureen Andersen, President & CEO, INTIX
Guest: Emily Cole, Founder, Fans First Entertainment & Owner, The Savannah Bananas
Producer: Peter Yagecic, Innovation Advisor, Situation

Peter Yagecic:

You're listening to Fandom Unpacked from Situation and Intix, the podcast series where we unpack modern fandom with some of the brightest minds in sports and entertainment. It's pre-holiday cold season, but I am still producer Peter Yajisic, and I am hermetically sealed in my own recording booth. Joining me for today's QA are Situation CEO and founder, Damien Basadana, and president and CEO of Intix, Maureen Anderson. Our guest today is Emily Cole. Her company, FanFirst Entertainment, owns the Savannah Bananas, the baseball team that's been electrifying fans across the country for nearly a decade by answering the simple question what if people that love baseball can come out and have fun? She and her husband Jesse have been writing their own rule book ever since. I'm going to be back in a bit to ask Emily some listener questions, sent into fandomunpack.com. Damien, how about throwing out the first pitch?

Damian Bazadona:

Emily, a lot of our previous guests, and I mean a lot, have pointed to the Savannah Bananas as the example of getting fandom right. And enough to make you blush. When you hear that from the outside, how do you describe what you've built and who your fans are?

Emily Cole:

Well, it's it's such a compliment to hear that. And honestly, the way that we look at ourselves, you know, we don't have it all figured out yet. But what I will say is the name of the company is Fans First Entertainment. And that is our North Star, and that is who we serve, and that is who we think about and obsess about every single day. And I think just by keeping it that clearly that we are able to think about the fans and get fandom right, as they say, uh, whether we're at a stadium of 5,000 people or 105,000 people, that's who we're there to serve, and we never waver from that.

Damian Bazadona:

So your mantra is fans first, entertainment always. How does that show up in real decision making? In what is typically, I would say the live event business is it's a limited supply business. Maximize the moment, charge as much as you can when you can, because you don't know how long this magical lasts for. Walk us, can you just walk us through? How about walk us through a recent moment where you had to say no to something that probably would be pretty profitable, but it wasn't truly fan first.

Emily Cole:

Yeah, I think it's it's become almost simple for us to look at it through this lens of what is fans first? And so every decision that we make, we pretend that there's a fan in the room with us coming up with the solution for them. And so by using that lens, it really is simple to come up with these things that are fans first. We look at the friction point that a fan or a guest has someplace and we just work backwards from there. Is it hard to call and get a human to talk to? Is it hard to find information on a website? You know, we start with those easy friction points and we work backwards from there. One of the big recent decisions, I guess, that we could talk about is our idea of not having the typical sponsorship packages for our team. As a sporting event or as an entertainment venue, a sponsorship is normally very front and center. It is very obvious. And for us, again, we stopped and looked at the friction points of a fan's experience at venues. Most people are not going to those venues to look at an outfield littered with advertisements. And so we said, okay, we're going to move away from that. We are going to have a clear outfield wall. In fact, we're going to go the other way and we're going to have a fan wall. And so now our fans actually walk on the warning track and they go out and they sign our outfield wall so that they are a piece of history. They are a part of that game. And so really it's just looking at these little friction points that add up as the consumer to a point where we're frustrated or we're getting nickel and dimed at an event. And we try to erase all of those friction points so that people are truly just there to experience uh, you know, the game or the event or whatever that they're there to see. So that's the lens that we use. And I think by simplifying it like that, it helps us stay on brand and put our fans first.

Damian Bazadona:

Well, what would an example look like? Because I'm sure on I'm sure there's people listening right now that would love to become some version of a sponsor with you. Like what could a sponsorship look like in in your eyes that that is kind of uh a one plus one equals three for the experience?

Emily Cole:

Yeah. So first of all, we will only use the word partnership, not sponsorship, because for us, it's truly looking at it as a partnership. So if somebody comes to us and they say we want to be involved, the only way we would even consider it is if our fans win. And so again, looking at an outfield wall, we don't feel like the fan is winning by having a big advertisement out on the wall or having a sponsored PA read. We as the team would be benefiting from a dollar standpoint, but the fan would not be benefiting. So if somebody comes to us and says, Hey, we know that your fans line up at nine in the morning, they tailgate all day, they come early for these events. We want to come and provide at no cost to them and no work to them this item or this drink or whatever it is. So if people are waiting all day long in the sun, waiting for our gates to open for our event, and a true partner says, I want to come in and take care of these people. We are just going to hand out these things for them. That's a partnership we could we would consider, right? So the business gets to get in front of those people, sure, but they are really just giving value to the person who is waiting in line who is going to come to an event, anyways. So that's the only type of partnership, really, that we would consider is do our fans win completely in this situation with this partnership?

Damian Bazadona:

I really wish uh movie theaters would follow this. I feel like the idea of, you know, total intrusion with brand sponsorship, you spit there for about 35 minutes before then the movie finally starts. Um, can I ask you a question that I know will make you blush, but I but I do ask it by design, and I think it's actually very important. How do you internalize all the success that you've had? And I ask that because I would say that this comes out of left field. Um I I would say that your brand, it's like the number of people in the live event business that like look to it and are just completely inspired what you've done. And you're selling at Yankee Stadium, I just in my local area here. Like, you gotta sort of look around sometimes and just go, I are you surprised by the success?

Emily Cole:

I would say that everybody in our organization is extremely humble. When when people compliment us or they say you guys have made it, we don't see it like that. We see ourselves as being in the first inning. And so when you're trying to achieve greatness and you're growing, that's what you're thinking about. There's no time for us to sit back and rest on our laurels. There's no time to sit back and just look at all the success around us and not be working towards the next thing. Our responsibility is to continue serving our fans to the best of our ability. It's to come up with the most creative, most fun, most experiential things for our fans. And so when that stays as our main goal, we don't sit back and say, oh, we've made it, we've figured it all out. We know for sure that we haven't. We are a very young organization. There are lots and lots of brands who have been around for, you know, tons of years and experiences themselves that we can learn from, these generational companies that we have to look up to. And so I think it's really just having that mindset. It would be dangerous for us to get into a spot of, oh, we've made it, puff out our chest, look at us. Because once we get to that point, I don't think the main thing would be the main thing anymore, which is continuing to find more ways to entertain our people. And that would be scary. And so I think just by staying humble and saying we have a lot of room to grow, we have a lot of improvements that we can make by considering that we are still in the first inning. It's not a place where we are dangerously uh too cocky, I think. And so when people do say those things to us, it almost takes us, it almost, it almost knocks us off guard because we don't, we don't think we have it figured out yet. We don't think we're that we're the best at it yet. We're not.

Damian Bazadona:

Uh listen, I have great admiration for the simplicity of your mission and how focused you remain on it. Uh Maureen, let me go, let you get in.

Maureen Andersen:

Cool. Thank you. Um I was curious about the ticketing and pricing standpoint. Is, you know, that's a big topic in the industry these days. And you have, you know, arguably, you know, this huge family fan base. And you've made some, you've bucked the system and you've made some unconventional choices over the years to really try and keep things simple and fan friendly. Can you talk a little bit about how prices and fees and values uh are all put through that fan's first lens, especially that the price and fee scenario? And then I'd also like to isn't, you know, is to ask about, you know, you creating a new closed loop environment of the secondary market announcement that you all made about uh about 10 days ago.

Emily Cole:

Yeah, absolutely. It really started with this. When we first launched the organization, we said, how can we not nickel and dime our fans? That's what they're used to. Fans are used to being nickel and dimed at events. You pay for parking, you pay for the hot dog, you pay for the beer. It's it's cost after cost after cost. Or if you buy something online, there's a there's a convenience fee, there's a shipping fee, there's all these extra fees that add on to your tickets, right? And so from the very beginning, before we even launched the Savannah Bananas in Savannah in 2015, we said, how can we make this such a value-packed thing for people that they have to go try it out? It there's really no risk for them to go to go check us out at least once. And we knew once we had them there, there was going to be so much value that they would want to come back. So when we launched the Savannah Bananas for the first time, we created the all-inclusive ticket. So, still to this day, all of our tickets in Savannah, Georgia include all of your hot dogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, soda, popcorn, water, dessert. Because we want kids to be able to get up and go to the concession stand without saying, Mom and dad, can I have another $10 bill? Can I spend another $20? Can I have the credit card? We didn't want to have those nickel and dime moments. And so from the very beginning, I think that hopefully makes it clear that the value has been such a big focus for us and taking out that friction point of the added cost. And we've just evolved that and continued that over the years. All of our shipping for all of our merchandise, which has become a massive part of our business, is free shipping around the whole country. It's just we've never had shipping fees. Why would we add that on? The convenience fees when you're buying tickets. There's nothing convenient about that. So when people buy our tickets, it is the price that they see. That is the ticket price. We are hearing more and more that we should go up on tickets. That's why there's so much demand is that because that they're so affordable. Um, and I think that that's just the price we're willing to pay is to hear that from people because the last thing we want to do is gouge people. We want families to be able to come to these games. We are keeping it as affordable as we can for families to come out. And that's something that we're gonna continue forever. Uh, to speak to this new secondary market issue. Yes, there is a supply and demand issue right now. We are so grateful to have over 40 million people on a wait list. But with over 4 million people on a wait list and not playing in front of that many people live, there is a supply and demand issue. We understand that. And so unfortunately, we are seeing that sometimes in human nature, there are people who will look out for themselves and try to win on uh, you know, somebody else's behalf. And so we have tickets that are being sold on secondary markets for three, four, five times what we sell them for. Obviously, we don't get any part of that. Individuals are just making thousands of dollars on these tickets that are being scalped. And so it's not the perfect solution, but it is a quick solution that we can implement this year. We have been building behind the scenes another ticket platform, our own secondary market, so that the fan, the local fan can help another local fan. That's the whole premise is that people in this fan's first family are just gonna continue to take care of each other. And if it only takes care of 10% of people, at least it takes care of another 10% of people, right? In this first year, as we launch this. We want somebody to say, oh, you know, a wedding popped up in our life and we can no longer go to this game, but I want to help take care of another fan. I'm not gonna go gouge somebody on a different secondary market and make five times what I paid for the tickets. I just want to help another local family similar to mine in whatever city. And so I'm gonna list them on the fans first secondary website and they will be able to buy them at the same exact price. So we are now eating the cost again of selling tickets. We are not making anything on that. We're actually paying more because of the charges and the platform costs that we had to build this. Um, but that's fans first. And so again, it was a simple decision for us to make to invest in this platform that we're building, is because we believe we can take care of more fans at that simple pricing. So, yeah, a lot of thoughts around all pricing and fees and ticket platforms, but it is something that we're very intentional about, something that we're thinking about all the time is how to continue to take care of people in that aspect.

Maureen Andersen:

It's interesting because it's it's um with the whole concept of the pricing and that you had all in pricing, you know, long before the rest of the industry got mandated by, you know, FTC laws and rules and things like that. So, you know, talk about bucking it. It's great. Um, we have a lot of intics and ticketing pros who who tune in and who work in the traditional venues that you all are coming into. And you had talked earlier about reducing the friction points. As you come into these of these venues who may not have um as robust of a fan first concept or value proposition, what would be a small operational change that you think that these venues could realistically make the system, this season, excuse me, that would move them closer to a deeper partnership and engagement with a fur fans first experience?

Emily Cole:

Yeah, that's something that we think about all the time, right? We're in a new community, a new venue every single week. And so we have learned by doing. We have jumped in and had a new relationship with a new group every single week over the last couple of years. And so we've learned a lot about how different operators operate and the pros and cons. I think that it all comes back to the communication and being on the same page. We are so intentional about going ahead of time on site visits and working with these people and making sure that the security team is on the same page as the food and bev team. They're on the same page as our team and our entertainment. We're on the same page with the groundskeepers. There's so many different players in this to make one of our events work seamlessly, right? We're going into somebody else's home and we're bringing hundreds of people and we're doing things on a ball field that have never been done before. And so there can be a lot of naysayers. There can be a lot of, hold on, what's gonna happen? This is our home. You're coming onto our turf. And so we try to do site visits years ahead of time. We try to talk to these groups years ahead of time. I mean, when people realize, or if people realize that when we announce our schedule, we've probably been in communication with a lot of these groups for years because a lot goes into this. And we do have to make sure that it's a fans first decision to go to these places. There have been a lot of venues that we have turned down. They might have been the best offers monetarily, but if they were not gonna be the best fans first decision for our fans, we've turned those venues down. And that's been an interesting part of our growth is you know, you have this very beautiful, shiny thing in front of you, and you have to walk away from it because it's not gonna be the best decision, because security is not gonna let you do a certain thing, or groundskeepers aren't gonna let a single person on the field besides your players, or you know, whatever it might be. Um, and so that's something that that communication early really has to come into play, and that makes sure that we're gonna have a successful event.

Maureen Andersen:

It's up to you. Join the professionals at InTIX 2026, our 47th annual conference and exhibition, January 26th through 29th in Las Vegas, Nevada. Intix isn't just an event, it's your competitive edge. The ticketing and live entertainment industry moves fast. If you miss this, you'll be catching up all year. Early bird registrations are open at intix.org. But wait, if you join Intiks as a member, you will unlock even more conference savings. We'll see you there. Hey, uh Peter, I think you've got an audience question.

Peter Yagecic:

Yeah, I'd love to sneak in a listener question. Uh and first of all, Emily, congratulations on all your success. And I love that you said that you're you're just in the first inning. Uh, I can't wait to see uh where you guys go from here. The listener question I wanted to ask you first was thinking back uh on you know when you started to now, was there a single fan interaction or game moment when you thought, okay, this is this is bigger than baseball now? Anything that stick out to you?

Emily Cole:

My first thought goes to the national anthem every night. We are so go, go, go all the time. I mean, morning, noon, and night, 24 hours a day, 365. I feel like we're running, right? Because we are still a startup. And so that's what you do in your startup phase. You're running, you're grinding, you're growing. Um, but the national anthem at every game I've been at has always moved me to tears because it's the one time of day that I have to stand still. And I look around and I am just in awe of the amount of people who chose to spend their entertainment dollars and spend their Saturday night with us. And that moves me. That moves me to tears. And it moves me in a way that I want to continue to get better for them, for every single fan that's in the building that night. Um, and so that's a moment that happens fortunately every night that I get to slow down and look around at what we've built and just want to continue to get better for them. It's one of my favorite moments of every game because it doesn't happen often and it's two minutes, usually more or less. And um, it's just a beautiful, a beautiful moment for us to slow down in this startup phase.

Damian Bazadona:

How do you approach recruiting and nurturing talent, both on the field, but also in the stands, the back office, and you have a, I think, a very distinct culture. Are there specific traits or expectations you have in new hires? Just if you could take us through that process, I'd love it.

Emily Cole:

Well, first I will say in the beginning, nobody wanted to work for us. Okay, so it's easy to look at us now and say, oh, they're so much fun. Everybody wants to work there. But man, it was pulling teeth in the very beginning. You know, it was uh this new unusual thing that people didn't understand. And so trying to recruit for that was very difficult. I remember the first time we had a dance uh choreographer come to practice and they were going to teach our players some dance moves, and it was not well received. I mean, most of the guys left the field uh because they're like, this is not baseball. This is not me. This is not what I signed up for. And so I just want to put that into perspective because now it is easy to say, oh, we have 12,000 people on a wait list to work for us. That is mind-blowing. That is crazy, and we're so grateful for that, but it wasn't always like that. And so we have just stayed very true to who we are and who we want to surround ourselves with. The people who are joining our organization, they are lifelong learners. And I mean that in every, in every way. It's not just the people who work in the front office, it's the players, it's the cast members, it's the people who want to reinvent themselves, it's the people who want to grind, it's the people who we want down in the trenches with us because we're still there. Again, from the outside, people think that we have it all figured out and that we're this massively successful company. And in some senses, we are, but we still look at ourselves as the rookie, the person who needs to prove themselves. And so we're looking for those people who want to have that same tenacity or who do have that same tenacity to go after in life, you know, to better themselves personally and professionally. We do a book club as a group. And one of the most recent books that we read was The Ideal Team Player by Pat Lincioni. And what stuck out to me in that book is finding people who are hungry, humble, and smart. And when I look back at how we hired, those are three things that very much stick out to us. The intelligence level just has to be there. There's so much autonomy in our company because we work in lots of different cities at all times. And so somebody has to be intelligent enough to just make decisions. You're not going to have somebody looking over your shoulder at all times. But the hungry and humble really come into play once you're in the role because we believe that we are still in the first inning, like I said. And so you have to have the hunger to grow because that's where the company is going. And so when you have leadership saying, we don't have it all figured out, we don't want to be the smartest people in any room that we're ever in, we're continuously trying to surround ourselves with brilliant, thought-provoking leaders. We read, we listen to podcasts, we share articles, we're watching videos constantly as a company. And so just that hunger to get better and then the ability to stay humble while we're growing and say, you know, we have all these accolades or people telling us we're doing a good job or 12,000 people waiting to work with us or 4 million people waiting to come to a game. I mean, that can go to your head. But we are very intentional at saying we do not know everything yet. We are still learning. There are so many people around us that we can learn from. So those are some of the qualities that we look for. Um, but yeah, it's interesting because from a staff standpoint, from a cast standpoint, from a player standpoint, all of these people are doing different things for our fans. But at the end of the day, they have to be fans first in whatever capacity that means. And so we're looking for just a really great human on top of all those other things. We're looking for the person that just instinctively bends down and picks up the piece of trash, or instinctively reaches for grandma's hand and helps her walk in the gates as she's uh, you know, maybe stumbling up the steps. It's just a person that we want to be around. Uh, and that's our culture is very important to us. So I could talk all day about our culture. It's something that means a lot to me. And I think it's one of our secret sauces. I think that if we stay focused on that, we'll be okay as a company.

Damian Bazadona:

Yeah, no, I agree. And I like the the hungry and humble, I think makes a lot of sense. Um, and just given all the the guests we've had on this podcast over the years, longevity is complicated in this business. And so doing that over an extended, continued extended period of time, and as you go through different phases as a company, um, I I I can't see that hurting you in any possible way to kind of keep that within the culture, and obviously you guys do a great job of it. Uh, Maureen.

Maureen Andersen:

That's lovely because finding the uh the room to be the give everybody the grace to be actually humble is a really amazing piece. So which brings me to kind of when you look at your data with repeat attendance, the membership, the wait lists, all the metrics over 10 years that you all have amassed. Taking it beyond, you know, it's humanizing the data and what's really behind the member that those numbers is can you say that your community is getting stronger and it's not just about sales?

Emily Cole:

Oh, 100%. That's our that's our focus. I mean, truly, my husband, Jesse and I, we do not know day to day what's in the bank account. Those are those are not the numbers that we are focusing on. But I could tell you the number of fans we served online and merchandise. I could tell you the number of fans that are gonna come to each ballpark. When we stay focused as a company on those numbers, the people who we're serving, I truly believe that that is gonna help continue to keep us on the right path.

Maureen Andersen:

Now that's pretty cool. I mean, when you look at the the community, is it's all about bringing it's being in service to a community. And in this day and age, that that's that's above and beyond. And it's that's what I think makes you really special, is that you're also bringing families together and supporting foster care community. And I was really interested in your Bananas Foster program. Could you tell us a little bit more about how that work came about and influenced the way you think about belonging and caring inside the ballparks and outside of the ballpark?

Emily Cole:

Yeah, I love this topic so much because it's so near and dear to our heart. My husband and I are foster parents ourselves. We have adopted our daughters, two of our daughters out of foster care and into our family. And so it's something that has always meant a lot to us. And when you look at the demographics of our games, it is mostly families who are attending these games together. And so when you look at those things, something that really means a lot to our family and the people who are attending our games, you know, as we were growing, we thought we have this responsibility. We are creating a lot of joy in the world. And there is something to say about that. But we continued to feel like with a bigger platform, we had more responsibility to give in our community. And when looking at all of those things together, it felt like we were being pulled to do something for the foster care space. It's this kind of this taboo topic that doesn't get spoken about a lot. And so we said, why not us? It's so near and dear to our heart. Um, and not just to me and Jesse, but the entire organization has watched these girls grow up in our family. They have had a front row seat to the changes in their life and who they are as people and who they're becoming as young ladies. And so it really means a lot to all of us to, you know, better the foster care system. And so we were knocking this idea around for a little while. And then, of course, my genius husband one night in the middle of the night sat up and said, Bananas Foster, I have the best name. Um, and from there, it was off to the races because how do you say no to a name like that? Right. So Bananas Foster was born. Um, and I will say from there, the tricky part started because we needed to figure out what our mission was going to be and what we were going to focus on. And with many nonprofits, you have to focus on things like fundraising and getting scary statistics out there and educating people. And so those are things that we thought we might intertwine into what we do day to day, but we wanted to really focus on staying aligned with who we were as a company. And so, as a company, if you think about Fans First Entertainment and Banana Ball, we are all about joy and happiness and laughter and family. And so we wanted to make sure that our nonprofit arm was also aligned with that and connected in those ways. And so we started with this vision of, hey, let's just celebrate people in foster care, which is a very backwards way of thinking because there's not a lot of things to celebrate in foster care, right? It's just a hard space. It's a tough subject. But if you look hard enough at anything, there are things to celebrate. And so sure enough, as we study more and we look more into this space, there are families and social workers who have been helping children for decades. And so we had this lens of let's just celebrate those people. Let's focus on them. And so that's what we do now at every single game, whether it's a very small stadium or a very large stadium, we get a local family or somebody who has made an impact on that local community's foster care system. And we celebrate them on the field and we just tell a little tidbit of their story, and the crowd inevitably stands up and gives them a standing ovation. And it's just such a beautiful moment. Now, we know that this is this is spinning people's wheels and this is inspiring and this is educating people and creating awareness. And so it is doing all of those things that end up being the goal of most nonprofits. But we start it with happiness. We start it with celebration. And the most beautiful thing when we walk off the field every night is seeing people from the crowd come into the stairwells and come into the aisles and hug these families and hug the people who we've just celebrated. And they're saying things like, I didn't know this was going on in our community. I had no idea. Thank you so much for serving these children for your whole life. How can I get involved? It's just just such an organic, beautiful moment and it spurs a lot of action. And so we're very happy to be the connectors in this story. We're able to then talk to the people who want to get involved and connect them with people in that local community, whether it is the foster care closets or the mentorship programs or the licensing agencies, whatever it is that people want to get involved in, we're able to connect them and then hopefully bring them into this space. And then we move on to the next city and we do it again and again. And so that's a big passion of mine. I'm sure you can hear it in my voice, the way that I talk about this, but happy to hopefully make a small mark on the foster care world and inspire a lot of people, celebrate a lot of, you know, very unsung heroes. I mean, Emily, thank you so much.

Maureen Andersen:

It's just amazing to have fundraising turned on its ear as instead of, you know, the the woe is me plea is that it becomes the joyful celebration happiness plea, is that there's so much that, you know, we all have glass half full if we really just turn the you know the mantra on our heads. Uh we have a lot of listeners that are some of your biggest fans, and I think Peter has uh has an actual fan question too.

Peter Yagecic:

I do. And and this question is from a listener who's actually also a former fandom unpacked guest, uh, sixth man CEO Jeff Quayar, who uh connected us with Hugh Emily, actually. And when we interviewed him a few months ago, he talked about the banana boat experience that your fans uh are gonna have a chance to do coming up in February, I think. Um and and his question was uh after everything the bananas have accomplished, when people said it wouldn't work, what still surprises you and why?

Emily Cole:

Oh yes. Great question, Jeff. Uh first, yeah, the the banana land at Sea Cruise is something that was born again because we wanted to serve our fans in a better way. As we are going to larger and larger stadiums, this was a way for us to try to connect with a smaller group of fans, some of our biggest fans. And so we work with Six Man, and it's such a fun project. And it's something that you wouldn't normally think a baseball team or a sports team is gonna do is basically rent out a cruise ship and throw a four or five day long party. Um, but that's what we do. We try to say whatever is normal, do the exact opposite. And how can we entertain these people in a different way? And so very excited to continue to work on that project. This will be our second time doing it with Six Man and excited for that. But I think day-to-day, what continues to surprise me is the way that people look at banana ball as this bucket list item. You know, it's it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day for us. We're in a new city every week, and we're bringing on new people, and we have orientations for new players and staff members, and you know, we're in the grind of running a business. And then we hear from a fan that this was a Christmas gift for their kids 12 months ago, and they are now traveling across the country. They've bought the merchandise, they've selected the tickets, they won in the lottery. This is their bucket list item for their family. Uh, when that, when I hear about that and when that actually sits and resonates with me, um, I'm just in awe that we are that to somebody, you know, because to me, we're just going about our everyday life trying to make the world a brighter place and create a lot of fun. And sure, I know that the reality is that people want to come to tickets, come to games and get tickets. I understand that. But the fact that they're so they put so much work and time into it is still a foreign concept for me and still something I'm in awe of and something I'm so grateful for is that people just put us up on this pedestal and and plan their year around these events. Uh, it's so, so special. We're so grateful.

Damian Bazadona:

Yeah, no, th Emily, thank you so much for the time. And, you know, we've been really anticipating and looking forward to this conversation. Um, so I genuinely appreciate it. Uh you live your values, uh, and I think that's rare in this business. And and one of the things I really admire is, you know, we we talked a lot about it, but how you bring communities together, and it it it really seems you leave a city in a better place than when you first arrived. Uh, and that's awesome. Um with all of the press coverage about the growth and success, what do people get wrong about your success? And is there some, you know, is there something people misunderstand about the way you approach your business that that you think people should know?

Emily Cole:

Oh gosh. There's there's so many things. And this has been a learning curve for us because we did kind of catapult into the spotlight. And, you know, we always just say, we always say that we're just a bunch of kids running a baseball team. And the reality is that's how we see ourselves still is these young go-getters. And we're not as young anymore, we've been doing this for almost 20 years, but I still say that because we still see ourselves as people who are just learning every day and people who have a hunger to get better. And so when you look at the press coverage and the front page news and the titles and the articles that are being written, um, it is a little daunting because all of a sudden everything is being covered. And of course, nobody knows the inner workings of any business or family, you know, unless you're in those walls. And so we have to remind our people every day that if we keep the North Star the North Star, if we continue to serve our fans and do what's right in this world, um, that's all we can do. And there are going to be things that are said that are untrue. But again, that's the trade-off, right? Of being this size and of having four million people trying to come out to your events is somebody is gonna be upset about something or not like the decision that was made. They might not have all the facts, of course, on how that decision was made, but they can speculate and they are gonna be upset about something and they have the right to be. And so I think that's just what's been hard for us is just catapulting this quickly into the spotlight and into quote unquote stardom for a lot of our people who are very young and most of our team is in their early 20s. Um, and so it's just a lot of life experience that we are catching up on or we're doing very quickly, I guess you could say, uh, and figuring out together. But very fortunate for the positive press coverage that we mostly have and have a good relationship with a lot of media. So fortunately, we don't have to deal with much of that.

Peter Yagecic:

That is gonna do it for this episode of Fandom Unpacked. If you liked what you heard today, please check out all the great QA interviews we've done over at fandomunpack.com, or by searching Fandom Unpacked and following the series in your podcast player of choice. We'd also love for you to rate and review the show while you're at it. That really helps us find new fans. We'll be back in your feed in a couple of weeks with our first ever Fandom Unpacked retrospective, a look back at the best moments our guests have shared with us over the past year. We'll see you next time, true believers.