The Savannah Bananas' financial strategies for their 2025 baseball season.
Let's Chat About the Savannah Bananas
The Savannah Bananas, a minor league baseball team, morphed into a weird and entertaining traveling exhibition team that captivates audiences with its offbeat antics. With that change comes exciting growth, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows on the business side as the team pioneers a bold new path in sports entertainment.
Enter Dr. Tim Naddy, the Bananas' VP of Finance, who's been busy prepping the team for expansion with his unconventional "diamond and dugout" approach to finance. This strategy embraces the quirks of baseball and everything else that isn't baseball, from operations to food and beverages, merchandise, and more. By treating the entire team as cross-functional, seamless financial management becomes a breeze.
After experiencing their most successful season ever, selling out NFL stadiums, and adding multiple teams, you might wonder how the Bananas' finance team keeps it all together. Well, they've got data on their side – meticulously tracking their baseball and non-baseball operations, so they can analyze the essential components of their business without any strings attached.
Tim Naddy
VP of Finance, Savannah Bananas
Employment History:
- Endurance Business Media
- Deloitte
- PwC
Q: How has finance been able to keep up with the team's growth?
A: We've adopted our proprietary "diamond and dugout" approach to financial management. Instead of traditional roles, my team is versatile and skilled in both baseball and non-baseball aspects of our business, ensuring that our core operations can run solely on ticket revenues. This cross-functional strategy allows us to streamline our financial analysis and anticipate growth potential.
As we showcase our expanded Bananas Baseball League, comprised of region-specific teams, we've faced scaling challenges such as juggling multiple venues and states. However, by creating a centralizedoperation in Savannah, we're developing a "one-stop-shop" for our finances, reducing the need to geographically scale our operations with added teams.
Q: How do you ensure data accessibility and accuracy among the network of moving parts?
Armed with the latest technology, we utilize our in-house ticket system, Fans First Tickets, along with the integration of ShipBob and Shopify for inventory management and e-commerce fulfillment. With these tools, we can maintain thorough data collection and analysis, using this information to address challenges as they arise in our ever-growing enterprise.
Q: How does the finance function adapt when forecasting costs for large events?
The intricacies of large-scale events bring unique challenges to the financial table. In order to address these issues, we invest heavily in understanding consumer behavior patterns across different event sizes. With this knowledge, we ensure efficient operations, minimize waste, and maintain a steady focus on maximizing profits.
The Road to an ERP Transition
Navigating an ERP change can be tricky, and Dr. Naddy went through that challenge last year, switching from QuickBooks to NetSuite. While it's not a walk in the park, understanding the ins and outs of the new system and finding a technical team to build bridges between systems can make the transition smoother. Should you decide to make the move, remember to budget for flexibility and additional IT resources, as a robust ERP likely requires costly add-ons or partnerships.
- The Savannah Bananas' VP of Finance, Dr. Tim Naddy, has been instrumental in steering the team's financial growth with his unique "diamond and dugout" approach.
- This unconventional strategy in finance involves a versatile team skilled in both baseball and non-baseball aspects of the business.
- By treating the entire team as cross-functional, financial management for the Savannah Bananas becomes more streamlined and efficient.
- The Bananas' finance team meticulously tracks their baseball and non-baseball operations to analyze growth components, removing any potential obstacles.
- After a successful season in 2021, the Bananas expanded to multiple teams, making data accessibility and accuracy crucial.
- Dr. Naddy leverages cutting-edge technology, such as Fans First Tickets, ShipBob, and Shopify, to ensure thorough data collection and analysis.
- As the Bananas aim to grow further in 2025 with their Bananas Baseball League, a centralized operation in Savannah will help maintain financial stability.
- Understanding consumer behavior patterns is essential for Dr. Naddy's team to optimize operations and profits in large-scale events, requiring a focus on data analysis and forecasting.
