Since starting to play Coastal Plain League baseball in 2016, the Savannah Bananas have been the toughest ticket in town – with 88 straight sales at Grayson Stadium.
This streak is sure to continue – albeit on a smaller scale, as owner Jesse Cole has had to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic. Bananas have pushed back opening day from May 18 to July 1 and plan to implement social distancing at Grayson, which normally has a capacity of 4,100 seats. About 2,000 fans will be allowed to participate in matches under the plan this season.
That would leave a lot of Banana fans out of the loop, so Cole – who is known as a marketing genius who embraces the latest technology – will implement live streaming of the games to give fans a chance to experience the vibrant atmosphere. the game Banana online.
“A lot of teams are showing games live, but we’re trying to re-imagine what an online game could look like,” Cole said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Our games are like a circus and we want the experience to be unique with our livestream. We’re looking to show the action with drone shots, cameras on the players when they are on the field and in the canoe, and live microphones on the players and coaches.
“We’re thinking about how we might have fans making decisions like baseball has never seen before – these are the questions we ask. Could fans make any choices about what uniforms we wear, who will be in the starting lineup and what kind of stand-alone music players have? We want to have unique camera angles and the coaches could explain the game decisions while they are taken at the microphone. We are looking at all the possibilities.
The Bananas are set to play 30 home games this year, and each will be broadcast with Banana staff providing live interviews and reporting on the players and coaches, with a look at the personalities who have made the franchise so popular in the city. hostesses.
The streaming service will cost $ 4.99 per month and is scheduled to start on June 23. Fans who sign up will first have access to freebies, merchandise, and other perks. Fans can register at this link – https://thesavannahbananas.com/bananasinsider/.
Cole said hundreds of people around the world had already shown interest in fans from as far away as Australia, Brazil and the UK when the program was announced on May 20.
