COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — The Savannah Bananas are bringing their unique brand of baseball to Kyle Field this week, an event projected to generate an $18 million economic impact for College Station.
Jeremiah Cook, assistant director for Visit College Station, said the upcoming game will mark the largest in-person attendance in the team's history.
"When we look at like other markets that are similar and kind of the economic impact they've had there as well as the information we have right now projecting it's about an $18 million economic impact on our local economy and that's huge, not just for our hotels but for our restaurants and for retail," Cook said.
Local Businesses are prepare for the surge of people throughout the weekend. Brayton Watson, the Sale Manager at La Salle Hotel said her and her team seeing it similar to crowds at graduation.
"It's kinda cool we're gonna get to experience a little mini graduation before the full graduation next weekend," Watson said.
Texas A&M is taking the lead on executing the event at its venue, while Visit College Station is acting as the city host partner. Cook said the city is providing financial support, promoting the event, and connecting the team with local businesses.
"We're really proud of our partnership that we've created with them," Cook said.
To enhance the visitor experience, Visit College Station created a landing page to help fans find events and activations throughout the community. Activities include a meet-and-greet with players at Academy, events in Northgate, and discounts at local vendors for fans.
"We've created a landing page on our website that kind of has a one stop shop for all the different places that you can engage with the Bananas throughout so that people know it's not just come in Saturday afternoon, go to the game and go home," Cook said.
Because the crowd will differ from a typical Texas A&M football game, parking and transportation logistics have been adjusted. Cook noted that fans will not be tailgating all day, and Texas A&M has released specific parking and bus information for the event.
Fans who did not win the initial ticket lottery can still participate in the weekend's festivities. A Fan Fest will be held outside the stadium before the game. Additionally, Cook said tickets are available on the team's official resale site at their original face value.
"That's something the Bananas are really, passionate about and so that's something I always encourage people to check if there's tickets," Cook said.
The game will also be broadcast live on ESPN, bringing national attention to the city. Cook emphasized that the primary goal of hosting such a large-scale event is to support the local, student-based economy.
"Anything that we can do to bring in outside people and and outside money into the community to help our local restaurants, help our local retail, it's really great, not just for um just for one section of the economy but really the entire economy as a whole," Cook said.
To find other events happening throughout the week, visit: https://visit.cstx.gov/banana-ball-visitor-page/
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.