The Loco Beach Coconuts and Indianapolis Clowns will play three dates at Myrtle Beach’s newly renovated, publicly owned ballpark. Getting a ticket — and knowing who really benefits — will take some work.
Oct 16, 2026 · @ https://x.com/myrtlebeachnews
A year after Conway pulled off the Grand Strand’s first Banana Ball weekend, the sport’s traveling circus is coming back to Horry County — this time a few blocks from the ocean.
The Myrtle Beach Pelicans announced Thursday night that the 2027 Banana Ball World Tour will stop at Pelicans Ballpark March 18–20, with the Loco Beach Coconuts taking on the Indianapolis Clowns in what will be the tour’s first visit to the 21st Avenue North stadium [Myrtle Beach Pelicans, 2026]. It is the only South Carolina stop on next year’s schedule [Post and Courier, 2026].
That’s a genuine win for the Grand Strand. But for people who actually live here, the announcement raises three practical questions that the celebratory press releases don’t answer: How does a local get in the gate? What does this mean for a stadium taxpayers just spent $20 million rebuilding? And who captures the economic benefit — residents, or the visitors this event is designed to attract?
The Myrtle Beach dates were revealed Oct. 15 during Banana Ball’s annual City Selection Show, broadcast from Historic Grayson Stadium in Savannah on ESPN2 and the league’s YouTube channel [Spectrum News, 2026]. Founder Jesse Cole said organizers fielded roughly 300 bids from communities around the world hoping to host games next year [Spectrum News, 2026].
The scale of what Myrtle Beach is joining is hard to overstate. The 2027 schedule spans 79 stadiums in 75 cities and, for the first time, leaves the United States — with series in Monterrey and Tijuana, Mexico, and in Toronto and Winnipeg, Canada [Baseball America, 2026]. Organizers also unveiled a two-field “Banana Ball 360” format for Notre Dame Stadium and set the season-ending Banana Bowl for Nashville [Sports Illustrated, 2026]. Myrtle Beach shares its March 18–20 window with Las Vegas Ballpark [WFAA, 2026].
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, Banana Ball is baseball rebuilt as a show: no bunting, a two-hour cap on every game, and a rule that turns any foul ball a fan catches into an out [Post and Courier, 2026]. It has outgrown its origins as a single independent club. The organization added the Coconuts and Clowns as expansion teams for 2026, bringing its league to six clubs [WTOC, 2025].
One thing hasn’t changed for the Grand Strand: the flagship Savannah Bananas still aren’t on the local ticket. Both Horry County visits have featured the league’s newer teams. That’s worth knowing before you promise the kids they’ll see the yellow kilts in person.
What’s notable is less that Myrtle Beach made the list than that it made it twice in two years from a competitive bidding pool — and that the second invitation went to a different venue. To understand why that matters, it helps to look back at Conway.
The Grand Strand’s first Banana Ball weekend came March 28–29, 2026, when the Party Animals and Coconuts played at Coastal Carolina University’s Springs Brooks Stadium [Coastal Carolina Athletics, 2025]. It sold out — 5,500 tickets — and the Coconuts won the series finale 4-3 [North Myrtle Beach Times, 2026].
There was a local storyline, too. Anthony Marks, a member of Coastal’s 2016 College World Series championship team, came home to Springs Brooks as the Coconuts’ coach and got a warm reception from Chanticleer fans [WMBF, 2026].
Conway’s success wasn’t free. City Council voted unanimously to give CCU $42,000 to help land the event [WMBF, 2026], money that came through the city’s Economic Development Grant program and was drawn from general fund revenue [North Myrtle Beach Times, 2026].
That detail is the most useful piece of context for next March. Conway set a local precedent: public dollars as a sweetener to attract Banana Ball. Whether Myrtle Beach — or Horry County, which still has a stake in the ballpark — has offered any comparable incentive for the Pelicans Ballpark dates has not been disclosed in any announcement so far. It’s a fair question for residents to put to their elected officials.
The Coconuts’ return also suggests the league sees the Grand Strand as a developing market for that particular brand. The team now has history here, which helps explain why Myrtle Beach drew a Coconuts series rather than a random pairing.
That brings the story to the stadium itself — and to the public money already sunk into it.
Pelicans Ballpark is not a private venue. The city and county have jointly owned it since it was built in 1998, under a 70/30 split, and are responsible for its capital upkeep [Myrtle Beach Herald, 2025]. The county has said it wants out of the baseball business and has signaled interest in selling its share back to the city [WMBF, 2025].
The stadium nearly cost the region its team. Structural problems and failure to meet Major League Baseball’s facility standards put the Pelicans’ future in doubt until the city approved a renovation plan [Post and Courier, 2026]. The resulting 30-year lease included about $20 million in MLB-mandated improvements, including upgraded clubhouses, a performance center and field work, with the city preparing to borrow through bonds if needed [WMBF, 2025]. The ballpark reopened April 14, 2026; team owner Chuck Greenberg described it as essentially a new building [Post and Courier, 2026].
Crucially, the renovation was pitched as more than a baseball fix. City leaders backed it partly to expand the facility for multiple uses [Post and Courier, 2026], and the team has marketed its new event space, The Diamond, for regional events, rentals and meetings [WMBF, 2026].
Banana Ball is exactly the kind of non-Pelicans event that justification promised. Three sold-out nights in March, outside the Pelicans’ regular home schedule, are a visible return on the investment.
But the lease terms raise a question worth answering. Under the agreement, the Pelicans pay the city a per-ticket fee on home games and other events, rising over time [Myrtle Beach Herald, 2025]. Banana Ball tickets, however, are sold through the league’s own lottery, not the Pelicans’ box office [WFAA, 2026]. Whether those tickets generate per-ticket revenue for the city, and how much, would tell taxpayers directly what the public is getting back from its stadium on these dates. Neither the team’s announcement nor city officials have addressed it publicly.
Those questions matter to taxpayers. For most fans, though, the more immediate concern is simpler: actually getting a seat.
There is no general on-sale. Fans must join the ticket lottery list for their preferred date by Oct. 31; entry is free but guarantees nothing, winners are drawn at random, and each winner can buy up to five tickets [WFAA, 2026].
The Pelicans have carved out two other routes. Booking a hospitality space is the only way to guarantee access, and Pelicans season-ticket members with a 22-game plan or larger can get a limited presale — also ending Oct. 31 [Myrtle Beach Pelicans, 2026].
The math is tight. Pelicans Ballpark seats about 5,000 and can hold roughly 6,500 in Banana Ball’s standing-room configuration [Post and Courier, 2026]. Across three dates, that’s at most about 19,500 admissions — fewer people than Conway officials once hoped to pack into a single Banana Ball crowd at Brooks Stadium [Horry Independent, 2025].
Now add the travel factor. Data presented to Myrtle Beach officials before the Conway games showed about 80 percent of Banana Ball crowds typically come from outside the local market [Post and Courier, 2026]. If that pattern holds — and it’s an estimate, not a guarantee — something on the order of 4,000 of those seats would go to Grand Strand residents over the entire weekend.
That’s the core tension of the event. From a tourism standpoint, it’s nearly ideal: a mid-March draw that fills hotel rooms and restaurants before peak season, in a venue across 21st Avenue North from Broadway at the Beach [Post and Courier, 2026]. From a resident’s standpoint, it’s a hometown event most locals will watch from the parking lot.
The practical advice is straightforward: enter the lottery now, enter for more than one date, and coordinate with friends and family so a single winner can cover a group of five.
Banana Ball’s return is good news for the Grand Strand. It confirms that the region can compete for a national entertainment property against hundreds of bidders, and it gives a freshly rebuilt, publicly owned stadium the kind of high-profile, off-season booking its renovation was meant to attract.
But “good news” and “good deal” are different things. Conway showed that local governments may be willing to spend public money to land these games. Myrtle Beach’s lease shows the city has a financial stake in what happens at its ballpark beyond Pelicans home games. And the ticket math shows that the people who paid for the stadium are the least likely to sit in it that weekend.
Before March, residents deserve clear answers: whether any city or county money is going toward the event, whether Banana Ball tickets produce revenue for the city under the lease, and whether locals will get any dedicated access. Until then, the best move is the simplest one — get your name on the lottery list before Oct. 31.
Myrtle Beach Pelicans — Banana Ball World Tour 2027 at Pelicans Ballpark
Myrtle Beach Pelicans (via OurSports Central) — Banana Ball World Tour Coming to Pelicans Ballpark in 2027
Post and Courier — Banana Ball is coming to Myrtle Beach in 2027. How to join the lottery for tickets.
WBTW News13 — Banana Ball World Tour coming to Myrtle Beach in 2027 at Pelicans Ballpark
WMBF — Banana Ball World Tour visiting Myrtle Beach in March
WPDE / ABC News 4 — Banana Ball returning to Myrtle Beach in 2027
WFAA — Savannah Bananas announce 2027 Banana Ball tour stops, how to get tickets
Baseball America — Savannah Bananas 2027 Schedule Gets Even Bigger
Sports Illustrated (On SI) — 2027 Schedule Reveal: International Games, Disney, Banana Ball 360
Spectrum News — Banana Ball 2027 tour reveal preview
WTOC — Banana Ball reveals two new teams for 2026
Coastal Carolina Athletics — Banana Ball coming to Conway
North Myrtle Beach Times — Banana Ball comes to Horry County
WMBF — What to know ahead of Banana Ball at Springs Brooks Stadium
WMBF — Former Coastal Carolina national champion returns as Banana Ball coach
Horry Independent / MyHorryNews — Coastal Carolina leads push to bring Savannah Bananas to area
Myrtle Beach Herald / MyHorryNews — Myrtle Beach moves forward with Pelicans 30-year lease, $20M in stadium improvements
WMBF — Myrtle Beach plans potential debt in $20M Pelicans stadium renovation
WMBF — Myrtle Beach Pelicans give sneak peek at stadium upgrades
Post and Courier — Pelicans Ballpark opens after renovations
