{"id":170974,"date":"2026-02-27T03:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T03:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170974\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T03:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T03:29:11","slug":"officials-expect-big-economic-boost-as-tallahassee-goes-bananas-for-banana-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170974\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials expect big economic boost as Tallahassee goes bananas for Banana Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Bananas, Coconuts, Firefighters\u2026oh my! <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2025\/10\/09\/banana-ball-kick-off-world-tour-capital-city\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2025\/10\/09\/banana-ball-kick-off-world-tour-capital-city\/\">Banana Ball is taking over the capital city<\/a> this weekend, and all the fun that comes with this high-octane, family-friendly spectacle is also bringing a big boost to Tallahassee\u2019s economy. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The excitement was electric at Dick Howser Thursday as Banana Ball kicked off its first night, but city officials say this weekend is about more than just baseball \u2014 it\u2019s a multi-day regional tourism event that\u2019s expected to have a major economic impact. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Banana Ball kicked off their series of games in the capital city on Thursday. \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/C7KMGUZHOVECPMLSNQZEEP4AQA.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Banana Ball kicked off their series of games in the capital city on Thursday. (Julia Miller\/WCTV)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials with the City of Tallahassee say that with attendance expected to top 80,000 people over three days, they\u2019re projecting millions of dollars in economic impact for the city. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThey\u2019ve sold out Doak Campbell what three nights in a row? That is huge. The economic impact will be incredible for the city,\u201d Mayor John Dailey said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">That impact includes spending at hotels, restaurants, retail stores, transportation, parking and more. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The general manager of the Hampton Inn and Suites near the stadium, Matthew McCloud, says they\u2019re already seeing the impact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSavannah Bananas is a big impact to the areas, especially the downtown hotels. We are sold out Friday and Saturday for the big event. We are expecting a lot of people, so I know that everybody is excited,\u201d McCloud said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">One fan, James Ranck, made the trip all the way from Bluffton, South Carolina, for the weekend. He says he traveled for the experience and to see all six teams playing for the first time. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the new teams to see the mascots and the new players. They have switched some of the players around from the older teams to make it more balanced and to spread it out, but I\u2019m just looking forward to the fun,\u201d Ranck said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Banana Ball continues throughout the weekend, wrapping up Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/02\/27\/officials-expect-big-economic-boost-tallahassee-goes-bananas-banana-ball\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Bananas, Coconuts, Firefighters\u2026oh my! Banana Ball is taking over the capital city this weekend,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[46610,3816,558,1721,50488,740,1555,3603,3964,634,19809,232,234,233,3019,1316],"class_list":["post-170974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-banana-ball","tag-baseball","tag-business","tag-capital-city","tag-doak-campbell","tag-economy","tag-event","tag-fsu","tag-hotels","tag-local","tag-spending","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tickets","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}