Oracle Park will host two nights of Banana Ball next summer, bringing the high-energy, rule-bending version of baseball to San Francisco for the first time. The games are set for Friday, July 30, and Saturday, July 31, 2027, with the Party Animals squaring off against the Indianapolis Clowns in place of the Savannah Bananas themselves.
According to the Mercury News, the Bananas aren't the ones taking the field in San Francisco — the games will instead feature the Party Animals, the Bananas' original rivals, against the Indianapolis Clowns. A separate schedule rundown from SportsTravel also lists the Indianapolis Clowns facing the Party Animals at Oracle Park on those same dates, confirming the matchup even as outlets differ slightly on how the pairing is described.
Anyone hoping to be in the stands needs to act fast. Tickets aren't sold directly — fans must join a random lottery, and the entry window closes October 31 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern, per Banana Ball's ticketing page. Joining the list is not a guarantee: a random drawing determines who even gets the chance to buy available tickets, the same page notes.
How the Ticket Lottery Works
Those who enter before the deadline will hear back from Fans First Tickets this winter, according to a Banana Ball help center article explaining the process. The Mercury News reports that tickets will start at $35, while Meet-and-Greet tickets begin at $150 — a reminder that even winning the lottery still comes with a price tag before fans can celebrate landing a seat.
Banana Ball itself traces back to 2016, when the format debuted with the Savannah Bananas as an alternate-rules twist on the sport, the outlet's report notes. The game runs on 11 unique rules designed to keep the action constant, a structure confirmed on Banana Ball's own site, and it leans heavily into spectacle — fans catching foul balls for outs, choreographed dances, and the kind of theatrical flair that has turned the brand into a touring phenomenon.
A Growing League With Bay Area Roots
San Francisco won't be the Bay Area's introduction to the format. Banana Ball made its regional debut in 2023 at San Jose's Excite Ballpark, and that appearance sold out almost immediately, the Mercury News reported. The Oracle Park dates mark the organization's first time playing within San Francisco proper.
The Indianapolis Clowns, one of the two expansion teams facing off in San Francisco, only joined the fold recently — the club was one of two new teams making its Banana Ball debut in 2026, according to The Atlantic. That same report notes games are packed with singing, dancing, celebrity cameos, backflipping outfielders and stilt-walking batters — the kind of showmanship that has helped the Bananas and their affiliated teams sell 2.2 million tickets in a single year.
The league behind it all, the Banana Ball Championship League, was announced on October 3, 2024, as the first professional Banana Ball league, per Banana Ball's site. Its inaugural season in 2026 includes six teams: the Savannah Bananas, Party Animals, Firefighters, Texas Tailgaters, and newcomers the Loco Beach Coconuts and Indianapolis Clowns.
San Francisco Fits Into a Massive 2027 Tour
Oracle Park is just one stop on an ambitious slate. SportsTravel reports the 2027 Banana Ball Championship League tour is scheduled to hit 79 stadiums across 74 cities, with organizers projecting more than 4 million fans will attend over the course of the run. The tour will also cross borders, with international stops planned in Monterrey and Tijuana, Mexico, and Toronto and Winnipeg, Canada, according to the same report.
Beyond San Francisco, Banana Ball is also booked at three more MLB ballparks in 2027 — Dodger Stadium, Chase Field and Rogers Centre — per SportsTravel's schedule breakdown. The tour's Cooperstown stop in May will even include a dedicated Banana Ball exhibit, the outlet notes, underscoring how far the format has traveled from its 2016 origins.
Part of the draw has always been the unpredictable cameos. Former major league players — including Hunter Pence, Roger Clemens, Barry Zito, Eric Byrnes and Johnny Damon — have made surprise appearances in Banana Ball games over the years, the Mercury News reports, giving fans another reason to keep an eye on the lineup card once tickets are finally in hand.
