Savannah Bananas sell out game at 65,000-seat Raymond James Stadium, home of NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers

In a testament to the growing popularity of the team, the Savannah Bananas sold out Raymond James Stadium for a Saturday night game against their touring partner, the Savannah Party Animals. The Bananas commemorated their first game in an NFL stadium in style, as they played in front of a sold-out crowd of 65,000 at the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Bananas — effectively the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball — have become an increasingly popular act in recent years, as “Banana Ball” has gained mass appeal to the point that they had sold out Major League Baseball stadiums prior to their first sellout of an NFL stadium. The Bananas won Saturday’s game 11-10, as DR Meadows hit a ball to an empty outfield that was ruled a walk-off grand slam.

The sellout for the Bananas makes for an interesting juxtaposition compared to Tampa Bay’s professional baseball counterpart. With the Bananas have been able to attract a crowd of 65K, the Tampa Bay Rays have struggled enormously with attendance, and their woes as a franchise continued this week as they backed out of a proposed $1.3 billion deal to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg. The team is set to play their regular-season games at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa — the spring training home of the New York Yankees — due to damage Tropicana Field suffered in Hurricane Milton.