Go Bananas: Exploring Internship Opportunities with the Savannah Bananas
The Savannah Bananas, a baseball club known for blending America's favorite pastime with high-energy entertainment, offer unique internship opportunities. Founded in 2016 by Jesse Cole, the team has captivated audiences with its innovative approach to the sport, featuring the fast-paced "Banana Ball" format since 2022, complete with unusual rules and a vibrant, show-like atmosphere. These internships provide a valuable experience in baseball and event management and allow learners to immerse themselves in Savannah Bananas’ fast-paced environment. As a Bananas intern, you’ll be an integral part of the operation, taking ownership of projects and encouraged to bring your ideas to life!
A Variety of Internship Roles
The Savannah Bananas Internship is open to students with an interest in all aspects of baseball and baseball management. Internships are available in social, promotional, marketing, operations, logistics, merchandising, media, and production departments. Interns will learn the ins and outs of your department and how all of our departments work together to create the most Fans First experience in the world. Let's delve into some of the specific internship roles available:
Merchandise Team Internship
As part of the Bananas Merchandise Team, you’ll be directly responsible for impacting thousands of Bananas Fans from all over the world! The primary focus will be on the retail and fulfillment side of the merchandise operation. You’ll also learn the process we go through when looking to add new products to our store as well as how we market and launch new products. You’ll also play a major role in making sure fans who attend the World Tour games have a great retail experience when we’re on the road! You’ll have your hand in the logistics of planning and packing for traveling to new cities and in the set-up and execution of retail on location. Some of the other aspects of this role include making thank you calls to fans, planning store layout, learning inventory control systems, leading store staff, apparel design and concept creation, and executing shipping procedures.
Stadium Operations & Concessions Internship
Stadium operations & concessions are a massive part of fan experience at Grayson Stadium, to say the least! At Bananas home games, more than 4,000 fans have access to our All-You-Can-Eat concessions and our operations team makes that happen! As an intern in this department, you’ll have a hands-on experience leading and working alongside our amazing group of gameday teammates. You will also help prepare the ballpark for games and events, introduce wacky and creative food and drink options, and oversee inventory management and POS operations. There are a broad range of responsibilities that fall under our operations and concessions departments; but ultimately, you’d be responsible for ensuring an amazing fan experience within the walls of our ballpark through the impact of our concessions and the facility itself.
Ticket Department Internship
You’ll thrive in this role if you can talk to anyone, can quickly identify a problem and implement a solution, and are confident being the “go-to” ticket person! In this role, you’ll learn directly from the Bananas Ticket Department and will help with each touch point of a buying experience. We believe the buying experience is so much more than a moment of purchase, but rather is an experience beginning before a ticket order is confirmed and extending further than getting your tickets in hand. Your primary responsibility will be to become an expert in all things Bananas tickets and to make a Fans First Impression on all fans you connect with. During this internship, you will develop, learn and implement single game tickets and new group ticket sales strategies for remaining games. On game night, you’ll lead gameday teammates on the front plaza and assist with ticket experiences such as entering stadium, box office/will call, and welcoming/greeting fans throughout the night.
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Group Experience Internship
As part of the Bananas Group Experience team, you’ll have a direct impact on groups that choose to Go Bananas for all kinds of reasons! Whether it’s a company outing, a birthday party, or a weekly date night, fans in our hospitality areas are looking forward to making memories here at Grayson Stadium. During the first half of this internship, you’ll work alongside group experience coordinators to serve groups of fans at all Bananas home games and some of the Banana Ball World Tour locations. Interns who have held this position in the past have been able to build amazing relationships with the fans they interact with, and we expect interns of the future to continue to do the same. In this internship in particular, we will encourage you to take full advantage of your freedom to “listen carefully and respond creatively.” During the second half of this internship, you will learn what it takes to start booking groups for the 2024 Banana Ball Season. By the end of the internship, you should have a complete understanding of announcing the game schedule drives demand and how the Bananas strive to meet that demand with outrageously excellent and expedient service. You will be comfortable talking representatives from all types of groups and organizations through selecting the best tickets, dates, and locations for groups of all sizes.
Catering & Hospitality Internship
As part of the Bananas Catering & Hospitality team, you’ll have a direct impact on groups that choose to Go Bananas for all kinds of reasons! Whether it’s a company outing or a birthday party, fans in our hospitality areas are looking forward to making memories here at Grayson Stadium. From food and beverage service at games in Savannah, to communication before and after events, we strive to offer an excellent experience and are excited to see the impact you can leave on Bananas Fans! As an intern in this department, you’ll have a hands-on experience leading and working alongside an amazing group of gameday teammates.
Broadcast Production Internship
As a Broadcast Production intern, you’ll work directly alongside our production team in ensuring that Bananas fans outside of the stadium are able to have a Fans First Experience from the comfort of their own home! You’ll be responsible for helping with production behind the scenes by building graphics, writing the broadcast script, setting up equipment, and leading our game day broadcasting crew. We’ll also lean on you and your production skills to time stamp exciting game plays and edit video highlights to be shared on social media. It’s important to note that this internship focuses predominately on production behind the camera, not on camera.
Video Production Internship
As a Video Production Intern with the Savannah Bananas, you’ll be right in the middle of all of the wild and crazy things we do! From the first mention of an idea all the way through editing the perfect video to show the world, you’ll be part of the things that drive the most attention we receive. Passion and experience in photography, film, story-telling, and content creation will help propel you to an influential part of growing the Bananas presence all over the world. Some of the programs you’ll likely use include Premier, Lightroom and After Effects.
Entertainment Internship
As the Entertainment Intern, you’ll work directly alongside Director of Entertainment in the execution of all promotions throughout the season! In doing this, you’ll play a direct role in providing the best entertainment possible to all fans that attend Bananas games and events. Your responsibilities will include assisting in the setup and maintenance of promotions, coordination of all fan experience, prizes, contestants, and miscellaneous activity required to execute the promotion successfully. In addition, the promotions intern will be responsible for cleanup of all promotion materials used during each game. This role will include working alongside Bananas Coaching staff, players, and cast to ensure the right people are in the right places at the right time! You’ll also be the main point of contact for fans participating in promotions including Banana Baby, Home Run Hitter, and National Anthem Singers.
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People Team Internship
The individual chosen to work with our People team will help coordinate all part-time teammates working Bananas events. This will include learning scheduling techniques, communication strategies, and how to make each individual feel valued for their specific impact on Bananas Fans. You will be responsible for greeting teammates when they arrive for shifts, ensuring they’re up-to-date on the most relevant information regarding game operations or fan experiences for that event. Additionally, you’ll oversee shifting teammates to new roles throughout the game as fans needs change and provide a great last impression for teammates as they leave after the event.
Baseball Operations Internship
Working withing Baseball Operations, you’ll get to see firsthand what happens behind the scenes specifically within the baseball program. This internship will include both physical and administrative tasks as they relate to assisting coaching staff with travel lists, clubhouse cleanliness, field set-up, and equipment organization. Additionally, you may serve as a liaison between other front office staff and members of the baseball teams to help coordinate things like availability, travel lists, and to request and document reimbursements.
Finance Team Internship
The individual chosen to work with our Finance team will help ensure all of our finance operations run efficiently so we can continue servicing our fans & teammates well. You will be responsible for register point-of-sale (POS) opening and closing, running reports through our POS system and Quickbooks, and analyzing reports from different software systems to learn the story the numbers are telling us. You’ll also have the opportunity to lead a group of part-time teammates and be an enthusiastic expert for POS issues during games. The intern in this role will have the opportunity to travel to some World Tour events to execute POS set-up and ensure connectivity throughout the event.
General Requirements and Expectations
Apprentices are required to work at least 10-15 hours per week and are urged to fully immerse themselves in Savannah Bananas’ fast-paced environment. This is a paid internship, with compensation varying according to the function and level of responsibility. Applicants for Savannah Bananas internships must be currently enrolled in an accredited college or school and have a strong academic record.
Benefits of an Internship with the Savannah Bananas
Working with the Savannah Bananas allows you to establish contacts and partnerships in the sports industry. You will get the opportunity to work with seasoned professionals, coaches, players, and other interns. During your internship, you will learn valuable skills that are highly transferable to a range of careers. An internship with the Savannah Bananas provides possibilities for both professional and personal development. Having the Savannah Bananas on your CV automatically boosts your marketability to potential employers.
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The Application Process
Prepare your application materials. Update your résumé with relevant experience, skills, and education. Customize your CV to highlight your skills and qualifications that are relevant to the internship you’re interested in. I first started my internship search in my Sport Career Preparation class with Dr. Emily Plunkett, where I learned how to find the right internships and opportunities for me, and how to tailor my resume and experience to those opportunities. Pro Tip No. 1: Don’t do that! The application process is long and time-consuming, with eight essay questions and a video just to actually apply.
A Glimpse into a Game Day
On to the actual internship, I wish I could tell you how a typical day or week could work, but I think a game day is much better. Throughout the internship, I traveled to 12 cities in 12 weeks, which included some meccas of baseball like Camden Yards, Busch Stadium and Coors Field in my hometown of Denver, Colorado. I was able to work in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, which was one of the most insane things I have ever done. A typical game day would start with a morning promo meeting, where we would go over the pregame and mid-inning promotions, and then we would get everything ready for game time. Games would actually start around four to five hours before game time, with our pregame plaza party, Before the Peel, where we would sing, dance and play games to get the fans ready before the gates opened. I would go up into the crowd and find participants for our pregame and in-game promotions, gather their information, bring them down into the dugout and coach them on how to perform well on the field. One of my favorite promotions that I ran, which I also created, was called “Four Corners Faceoff” for our Denver series. Luckily, to the delight of the hometown crowd, Colorado won, and to my surprise, that promotion was live on ESPN2 for millions of people!
Lessons Learned
What this internship did for me in terms of my future career journey is that it showed me what I truly love. My best advice for UF students who will be participating in internships like mine in the near future is a guiding principle of Fans First Entertainment: Be Where Your Feet Are. You only get to live this life once, and opportunities like these don’t come around very often for most people, so enjoy it. And if it ends up not being what you love, that’s OK; that’s why it’s an internship. Carson Duke is a junior sport management and business administration double major from Denver, Colorado, and one of the biggest Gator fans you will meet.
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