News
Fanatics looks to make big statement with first Fanatics Fest NYC
“If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”
Those are the lyrics the legendary Frank Sinatra sang in “New York, New York,” which is still played at the end of all Yankees games.
It’s also a mantra for Lance Fensterman, CEO of Fanatics Events, as he and his team organized the first Fanatics Fest NYC. The three-day event—a hybrid card show and sports festival—is a first-of-its-kind sports fan experience.
“New York makes sense,” Fensterman said when asked why the Big Apple was chosen as a venue. “If you want to make a statement, you do it there.”
The event will be held at New York’s Jacob Javits Center from Aug. 16-18 and will feature superstars like Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, Kevin Durant, former New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, and quarterback brothers-turned-broadcasters Peyton and Eli Manning.
The event will be a sports memorabilia show like no other. Activities will include: an all-day “trading pit” for card collectors; a museum display of memorabilia; a Fanatics superstore; and an area where people can learn about the hobby.
“I think it will be one of the best card shows in the country that sits inside a massive sports fandom experience,” Fensterman said. “You will get everything you want and 1,000 percent more.”
Think Comic Con—the comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event—but for sports fans and pop culture.
That’s where Fensterman comes in.
Hired by Fanatics in July 2023, Fensterman has some two decades of experience building the world’s premier live and digital pop culture events like New York Comic Con and others that include Star Wars Celebration.
“We see this as an awesome dealer show,” Fensterman said. “It’s also welcoming to new collectors and those who didn’t know they were interested in the hobby. We don’t want to just reach the converted.”
In order to do so, Fensterman is using the Comic Con model. As a result, Fanatics Fest will feature a main stage with 2,500 seats where, Fensterman said, “we are able to bring in great personalities” for those in attendance to hear one-on-one conversations in addition to other experiences.
“We want it to be immersive—really cool content and programming and interactive features on the show floor,” he added. “We just want to create a well-rounded experience of things to do and see.”
Comic Con started out as a gathering for comic book collectors and artists. Over time, it grew into a larger, pop-culture phenomenon featuring movies, video games and other forms of entertainment. New York Comic Con, a convention that launched in 2006, attracted 33,000 people over three days. Last year, the number reached 200,000.
Also See: How The National ‘broke’ Cleveland
“My background is big pop culture events,” Fensterman said. “[New York Comic Con] spread to other parts of pop culture. These different communities started to cross-pollinate.”
The aim, Fensterman said, is to do the same for the sports world and collecting.
“If we can pull that off, four or five different types of fans and fan culture, by bringing them into the building for this unique experience for what they love, and they start to discover other things,” he said.
This past April, Fanatics Events put on its first large-scale fan event called WWE World at WrestleMania, a five-day festival which took place in Philadelphia. It became the highest-grossing and most-attended fan event in WWE history. Fensterman has similar goals for Fanatics Fest and two other events on the calendar slated for this year. One is a high-end card show at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Sept. 28-29 and a second Fanatics Fest in Orlando from Nov. 1-3.
Whether Fanatics Fest can become a multi-city event remains to be seen. Fensterman said Fanatics is exploring the possibility of doing a similar version of the show in the United Kingdom, a country where Topps has been very successful in growing its brand among collectors.
“Let’s just see what our customers want,” Fensterman said. “We will look at what went well [at Fanatics Fest NYC], double down and scale and grow.”
Fensterman said he is excited that the first Fanatics Fest is in the summer, but not that it is taking place three weeks after the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland and the same weekend as the White Plains Card Show—known as the East Coast National—organized by JP’s Sports & Rock Solid Promotions. The company is run by longtime dealers Brian Coppola and Jim Ryan, part of the trio that includes Joe Drelich, owner of East Coast Sports Marketing LLC, that organized this year’s National.
Fensterman said the date was chosen because that’s what was made available to them by the Javits Center.
“You sort of pick the least bad date,” he said.
Fensterman also said Fanatics is “not genuinely trying to compete with a card show.”
“They exist and that’s awesome,” he added. “We’re trying to be additive and bring more people into the hobby and introduce more people to it and bring a rising title that’s good for everyone.”
New York area card shop owners agree.
Rob Katz, who operates Bergen County Sports Cards in Bergenfield, N.J., welcomes the show.
“It will be a beast and a feast to say the least,” he said. “I imagine the Javits Center will be the epicenter of everyone’s focus.”
Alex Berzins, owner of Alex’s MVP Cards in New York City, said largescale events like Comic Con and Fanatics Fest “only help spread the word about how fun collecting is.”
“Anything that gets new people into the hobby is great,” he said. “So many more people watch the games than collect, but with the increase in athletes collecting cards and showing off their stuff and following other collectors on social media is an effect of this crossover that is happening with Fanatics Fest.”
Single-day tickets are $50 for adults and $30 for children. VIP and three-day passes are also available. For ticket packages, visit fanaticsfest.com/ffnyc/ticket-info.
Clemente Lisi
