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BREAKING NEWS: 2023 National Sports Collectors Convention sets event attendance record
ROSEMONT, Ill. — The first three days of the National Sports Collectors Convention drew monster crowds, filling the isles of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill.
Now the 43rd annual show has set an event attendance record.
On Saturday morning, longtime National show promoter John Broggi shared the news with Sports Collectors Digest.
“We are on pace to exceed the attendance at any previous National including the 1991 Anaheim show,” Broggi said.
Saturday's show featured another packed house, with nearly every dealer and corporate filled with collectors and show attendees. With about two hours remaining on Saturday, Broggi confirmed that the 43rd annual show had indeed set an event attendance record.
Broggi confirmed that again Sunday afternoon as the five-day show came to a close. The NSCC does not release official attendance numbers, but the show is believed to have attracted more than 100,000 attendees, surpassing the 1991 show in Anaheim, Calif. for the largest of all time.
The Anaheim show is widely regarded in the hobby as the benchmark for attendance. Exact figures from that event aren’t known, but over 100,000 collectors attended, setting a record that stood for 32 years.
The 2021 National in Chicago is believed to have produced the second-largest crowd, approaching 100,000. This year's record attendance will gives the Chicago show two of the top three largest crowds in event history.
“It’s incredible to see so much passion and enthusiasm,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told Sports Collectors Digest on the first day of the show. “You come in here and there’s so many incredible collectors who just live, breathe, eat the hobby, and how’s that not make you so happy and excited?”
This is Broggi’s 17th and final National as the promoter. JBJ Corporation, which is run by dealers Joe Drelich, Brian Coppola and Jim Ryan, will take over in October.
— Greg Bates is a freelance contributor and editor-at-large for Sports Collectors Digest. He can be reached at gregabates@gmail.com.
