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Savannah Bananas will bring their zany baseball to Kinnick Stadium next July 3-4
Immensely popular barnstorming baseball/entertainment team will bring its fun and talent to Iowa’s football stadium for two nights
Oct. 9, 2025 7:00 pm
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Kinnick Stadium is adding another out-of-the-box sports spectacle to its lore.
Iowa’s 96-year-old football facility hosted an Iowa-Oklahoma State wrestling meet (an NCAA-record 42,287 fans) in 2015 and a Hawkeyes’ women’s basketball exhibition game against DePaul (women’s basketball single-game record 55,646 fans) in 2023.
Thursday night on ESPN2, it was announced Kinnick will be turned into a baseball park next July 3 and 4 when the Savannah Bananas perform there. The stadium will have a capacity for 65,000 fans for the games. Given the national box office success of the Bananas in 2025, a pair of sellouts may be what Kinnick sees.
“Kinnick is more than a stadium, it is a stage for unforgettable moments,” said Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz.
“We believe the Savannah Bananas’ unique brand of baseball and entertainment will be a perfect addition to that legacy.”
As of Sept. 22, more than 2.2 million fans had attended games on this year’s Banana Ball World Tour. An April game at Clemson University’s Memorial Stadium drew 81,000, with all the tickets gone within four hours of going on sale.
The announcement was made Thursday night on ESPN2’s "2026 Banana Ball City Selection Show." The way to try to get tickets is to register in a lottery at the team’s website, bananaball.com. The lottery will be open through tne end of October. If selected, fans will have an opportunity to continue through the verification process.
The Bananas are a barnstorming team that showcases what it calls “Banana Ball.” It’s family-centric, featuring comedy, athleticism and fan-participation with baseball as its base. There are pregame and postgame parties. The team has a pep band, a male cheerleading squad called the "Man-Nanas," and a "Nanas" dance team of senior-aged women.
There are antics galore, like a batter on stilts, choreographed dance routines, and trick plays. Everybody dances, including the umpires.
The Bananas have become overwhelming popular since they took their show on the road in 2024. Ten of their games were televised on ESPN networks this year. In August, TNT Sports began eight weeks of Bananas coverage.
The 2025 Banana Ball World Tour -- 115 dates in 40 cities -- featured stops at 17 Major League Baseball stadiums and three National Football League venues.
Games sold out this summer at MLB stadiums in Denver, Philadelphia and Anaheim, Calif. The nation’s most-watched cable sports program on July 5 was ESPN’s telecast of a Bananas game at Boston’s Fenway Park.
The Iowa City announcement was the last one on the Bananas’ 90-minute ESPN2 show Thursday. From the Bananas’ home stadium in Savannah, Ga., the players joined 8,000 fans in their stands in doing the Wave to University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital patients.
Present in Savannah for the selection show were 8-year-old cancer-survivor and Bananas fan Hugh Harvey of Donahue, Iowa, and his family, flown to Savannah by the team. Hugh has been treated for high-risk neuroblastoma at the Children’s Hospital.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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