Collectors, dealers relish return to Chicago for National Sports Collectors Convention
The Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. has become a second home for card collectors.
This year will mark the 11th time in the last 23 shows that the National Sports Collectors Convention will be held at that venue in the northwest suburb of Chicago. The 45th annual National will run July 30-Aug. 3.
In fact, every other year for the past decade and a half, Rosemont has been the host. But the convention in 2026 will deviate from that pattern. With Rosemont previously set for the 2025 and ’27 shows, dealers also voted to hold the 2026 show in Rosemont as well. That means for the first time in the history, the same city will not only host The National in back-to-back years, but for three years in a row.
There are always going to be mixed thoughts when it comes to the show’s location for attendees, dealers and vendors. However, the overwhelming sentiment is that having the convention in Rosemont for the next three years is a breath of fresh air.
“I love it, let me start with that,” Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President of Sports Joe Orlando said. “Having it in Rosemont, there are a lot of advantages as an exhibitor and an attendee. It is very close to the airport, there are a ton of hotels within walking distance of the convention center, there are a ton of restaurants and entertainment within walking distance of the hotels. It is a nice convention center.
“Rosemont seems to just check all of the boxes.”
Longtime dealer Kit Young, who has only missed two of 44 Nationals, is all for having the show in Rosemont.
“As much as I like the idea of offering convenience to lots of collectors, Chicago has proven to be far and away the best venue historically in many ways,” said Young, who runs Kit Young Cards. “Population base, proximity to big cities within 500 miles, ease of flying in and out, hotels everywhere, restaurants everywhere and a big collecting base.”
Robert Edward Auctions President Brian Dwyer has attended the last 17 Nationals and 18 overall. He’s looking forward to having the show in the same venue for a three-year stretch.
“I think of the cities that have been on the rotation for as long as I’ve been going to The National—and REA has been setting up since 2016—it’s just been Cleveland, Chicago and Atlantic City,” Dwyer said. “If we had to double up or triple up in any of those cities, Rosemont is the one that I would want to do. I’ve always viewed Rosemont as a perfect central location for collectors from across the country—it’s very easy for people to get in and out of. From an exhibitor’s perspective, it’s a very exhibition-friendly location. We know what to expect, there’s a lot of things to do, restaurants, there’s a casino and minor league baseball. It’s just got a lot going for it.”
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One aspect of the show that collector Mike Moynihan used to love about Rosemont was being able to book a hotel across the street from the convention center and not have to deal with transportation. However, that changed this year when hotels weren’t available to the general public until they were mostly sold out to dealers and vendors, Moynihan noted.
“So, me and many other people are staying miles away, which is not the end of the world,” Moynihan said. “But part of the charm of Chicago is walking across the street. If you want to go take a break during the day and just go chill out for a minute in your hotel, you can. Now, I can’t. I’ve got to get an Uber or rent a car or whatever to get to my hotel.
“I think it’s gotten so big that some of that charm has been engulfed by the massiveness of The National.”
RECORD CROWDS
When the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center hosted the 2023 National, it produced a record-setting crowd of over 100,000 attendees. Last year at the I-X Center in Cleveland, the attendance record was shattered, but the convention center and surrounding areas had a hard time keeping up with the influx of collectors, leading to a myriad of logistical problems. Less than a year later, the city of Cleveland announced on June 3 that it is closing the 83-year-old exhibition center.
“The National broke Cleveland,” longtime collector and National attendee Alex Tymchuk said, referencing a quote from NSCC manager Joe Drelich following last year’s show. “The infrastructure’s not there, people were waiting an hour and a half in the parking lots, the internet was very spotty. It was not the organizers. It’s an 85-year-old building and it’s just not built to handle that type of stuff. There were issues that the infrastructure of the city just couldn’t handle it, so that’s a problem.”
Added Moynihan: “Chicago’s the best venue for the convention, although Cleveland got a bad rap last year and it wasn’t nearly as bad as some people had expected it to be.”
In 2022, Atlantic City hosted The National and received plenty of negative reviews. There were air conditioning issues at the overheated convention center, the building isn’t located in the safest area (one longtime dealer was robbed during the show), and traveling to Atlantic City isn’t the most convenient, with the nearest major airport an hour-plus drive away in Philadelphia.
In order to host The National, a convention center needs to have a minimum of 600,000 contiguous square feet. In 2022, the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center used the entire 600,000 square feet on the main level.
The National show managers from JBJ Corporation have expanded the showroom floor this year, opening Hall G on the upper level. This will mark the first time the show has been on split levels. That area will be filled with first-time dealers. According to the show managers, there will be 75 more dealer tables, 40 more booths and an extra 50,000 square feet.
Expanding the amount of show floor space should help alleviate some of the congestion that has been felt in past years on the main floor.
“There’s been times where I try to walk through—and I’m sure that the average collector experience is the same—I have a very hard time getting from one place to another,” Dwyer said. “Anything that they can do to add square footage, whether it’s on that side room or the upstairs, I think is a plus.”
Tymchuk will be setting up as a dealer for the first time this year. The only reason he was able to get a table is because the upper floor was opened up.
“That’s going to allow them to introduce new dealers and new material to the public and to The National that people haven’t seen for a long time,” Tymchuk said. “You’re going to be able to get a lot more dealers in, and that’s good for the hobby long term. It’s like the minor league system.”
Dealers in the upper level are limited to having just one eight-foot table. But it will give those rookie dealers an opportunity to sell at the big show.
“I’m excited. I’m like a little kid in a candy store,” said Tymchuk, who will set up as AlexKards.
PERMANENT LOCATION?
There have been rumblings for quite some time on the show floor at The National that Rosemont could become the permanent home of the convention.
“The guys that have been in the business and collectors, we have all been talking about this I feel like for three decades—it’s been a long time,” Orlando said. “There are pros and cons of rotating it versus having it in a consistent place each year. My experience and the feedback that I have received over the years is that most people would like to have it there every year instead of rotating it around. I think it’s also about the convention center being able to handle it. If you recall last year, we were talking about Cleveland and that convention center, the way that it was set up, they had a hard time handling the volume of attendees. Getting to the convention center was quite frankly really rough each morning.”
Orlando has witnessed the success other major conventions in different categories have had in one city. His prime example: San Diego Comic-Con.
“It’s been in San Diego for a long time, and it is incredibly successful because it’s a nice area, people like traveling to it, and you know it’s going to be there each and every year,” Orlando said. “It’s predictable—you know it’s coming. I love the idea of finding a great venue that is convenient for all to get to and having it there every year. Yes, you can make the case that rotating it around the country, there are benefits to that; I’m certainly not downplaying it. But for the one major industry event of the year, I would not be opposed— and, in fact, love it—if it was there each and every year.”
Tymchuk, who lives in suburban Atlanta, is also on board for moving the convention to a stable location.
“Would I like to see it in Atlanta? Sure. There are very few places in the country that can really accommodate what The National needs,” Tymchuk said. “It’s grown so much. You need the infrastructure, you need the size, the buildings, and you’ve got to be in a location where the majority of the people can get to. You could easily hold a convention like this in Vegas or California somewhere. The problem is—and I don’t know what the numbers are, let’s call it 75 percent of the hard-core collectors, I’m guessing—are east of the Mississippi. You’ve got the whole northeast and everything else. That’s where your hardcore sports fans are.”
Traditionally, The National is the only show Young sets up at. He wouldn’t mind coming to Rosemont at the end of July every year.
“It’s so good for dealers,” Young said. “You could make all the arguments that it would be nice to have it in Dallas or Las Vegas or Boston, if you can find the facilities, which just aren’t available.”
From talking to clients and other folks in the industry, Dwyer gets the sense that vendors and dealers would have differing opinions than collectors.
“People are inherently creatures of habit, so I think that from an exhibitor’s perspective, we’ve only known four venues in the last 25 years: Cleveland, Atlantic City, Rosemont and Baltimore,” Dwyer said. “I think if you polled the vendors, Rosemont is probably far and away the favorite location. If you polled collectors, I think if you polled people that are going to be attending, branching out and variety is the spice of life for them.”
Moynihan, a vintage card collector who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, doesn’t like the idea of having a permanent location for the industry’s main annual show.
“One fun thing about going to The National is going to a different city and exploring what that city has to offer,” Moynihan said. “You can take your family. You can go to a ballgame. No one wants to see the Cubs or the White Sox every year. It’s never been something that’s permanent in the same place, and, so why would that be now?”
2008 FINALISTS
In late May, National show managers told multiple media outlets that Atlanta and Detroit were named finalists for the 2028 convention.
Atlanta has hosted The National twice, in 1992 and ’99. Detroit has never hosted a National, but Plymouth, a suburb of Detroit, was the site of the second-ever show in 1981.
“I would love to see them in Atlanta, and I think they’ll be back one of these years,” Tymchuk said. “Atlanta does have large enough facilities; they’ve got the infrastructure to support a National.”
“I think that’s very exciting,” Dwyer said. “I think that people that are attending the show might not want to spend their summer vacation in Rosemont every year. They might be excited by the prospect of going to a different city.”
What we do know is that the location of The National is set for the next three years. And the way the hobby is thriving, Dwyer is expecting another record-setting crowd this year.
“Where we sit in our part of the industry, we’re not noticing any slowdown,” Dwyer said. “As a matter of fact, we’re seeing record numbers as far as participation and new blood coming into the hobby in our little part of the world. I think that all signs are pointing to a significant crowd coming this summer.”