Lance Fensterman, CEO of Fanatics Events, has participated in more than 1,000 fan events in his career. But for a year he’s been planning something he considers wholly different – the first Fanatics Fest, hosted in New York City (FFNYC).
Since Fanatics announced the festival in April, rumors have spread about the show’s content. Many have dubbed it a Comic Con for sports. But Fensterman views the event, first and foremost, as a card show meant to appeal to a broader sports fan base.
“We’re trying to build a great card show for the hobby but also build these great pieces around it,” Fensterman told SC Daily. “This is going to be a kick-ass card show. But if you want to meet Tom Brady and hear his story, that can happen. If you want to see the players and get autographs, that can happen. It isn’t just for card collectors. It’s for people who love sports.”
What to Expect
FFNYC is a three-day event (Aug. 16-18) in the Jacob K. Javits Center, a few blocks from Times Square on the West Side of Manhattan. The Javits Center, as it’s also known, has 400,000 square feet of exhibition space.
By comparison, the IX Center in Cleveland, which hosted the National Sports Card Convention, used 530,000 square feet for the card space. According to research done by Fensterman, FFNYC will be New York City’s largest-ever card show.
“What we hope is, as a sports fan, it will be your greatest weekend,” Fensterman said. “You’ll feel and see the grandeur of what we want you to feel. We want you to get a sense of energy and excitement.”
Sports teams from all the major leagues will be represented in the halls with interactive booths. Attendees can shoot hoops on a basketball court, play hockey by taking penalty shots, or run a 40-yard dash.
A move into the card show space will feature more than 300 sports card booths. By comparison, the Cleveland National had 600 booths. Organizers initially thought about including Pokemon and TCG, but this show focuses on sports cards. The major grading companies and some auction houses will also be represented.
Each dealer will be set up with what Fensterman describes as “premium” booths, showcasing the cards and the event’s look. Each booth will have three tables, for a total of 900 tables of cards and memorabilia. A display of one collector’s high-end modern cards valued well into eight figures will be part of the show’s “museum” element.
Adult tickets, including service fees, cost $58.68 for one-day passes. Friday and Saturday kid tickets cost $35.21, and Sunday kid tickets cost $23.47. Three-day tickets and VIP packages are also available.
Autograph costs vary depending on the athlete and the items signed. A Peyton Manning autographed card costs $399, while an autograph on game-used items costs $2,000. Brother Eli Manning goes for slightly less at $179 per card and $599 for game-used items. Former New York Giant Ottis Anderson will be signing cards for $29.
Entertainment
While the card show is meant to be the focal point of Fanatics Fest, Fensterman says the goal is to help expose more people to card collecting.
“Someone doesn’t wake up and say, ‘I want to collect cards today’,” he said. “Something has to be the hook.”
Toward that end, there are “workshops” aimed at educating those who didn’t come for the card show but might still be interested in starting.
The event will host some of the most well-known podcast creators, and the crowd can watch and listen in on the conversations. Fensterman says there will be ten podcast recordings a day, so 30 will be produced throughout the weekend.
The convention center’s 2,000-seat auditorium will host panels featuring athletes, actors, and sports business leaders.
Most all of it is included in the price of admission.
Initial details on the schedule of events are now being posted.
Building a National Show, Locally
FFNYC features a star-studded lineup of athletes scheduled to appear during the show. Athletes with ties to New York either appearing in panels or autograph signings include Derek Jeter, Sabrina Ionescu, Eli Manning, Jalen Brunson, and Lawrence Taylor, among others. Players from the National Women’s Soccer League’s NJ/NY Gotham FC will also appear. Autograph tickets for Brunson are already sold out.
The national lineup features Mike Tyson, Jake Paul, artist Travis Scott, Tom Brady, Livvy Dunne, Anthony Edwards, actor Ben Stiller, and director Spike Lee.
And that’s just a fraction of other well-known media personalities and Hall of Fame athletes making appearances.
“We want to build a national show, but we want to build locally,” Fensterman said. “We want to bring in athletes and luminaries that transcend. As much as Derek Jeter is a New York guy, he’s a transcendent figure. We also really worked at getting a broad spectrum of female athletes.”
Promotion for the event is already underway. Local radio ads are in heavy rotation. ESPN host Ryan Clark recently wore an FFNYC t-shirt on his program, and local card shop Bleecker Trading is offering a 2-for-1 deal when tickets are bought in the shop.
A few hours after this interview, Fensterman went to Queens to promote FFNYC at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets. They’ve also run promotions with WWE, the Brooklyn Nets, and Gotham FC.
“This is a novel concept, so there’s a lot of storytelling to make sure people understand it,” Fensterman said.
Scheduling Conflict with the East Coast National
When FFNYC was first announced, the company received criticism for scheduling it on the same weekend as the East Coast National, one of the most respected card shows in the Northeast.
Fensterman said they didn’t mean to compete directly with the East Coast National. Still, given their timeframe and availability at the Javits Center, they had to go through with the dates.
“The first phone call I made was to Jimmy,” Fensterman said, referring to longtime East Coast National organizer Jimmy Ryan. “I love Jimmy and his show, and we don’t want to compete with them or hurt his show.
“It’s really, really, hard to get into the Javits Center. It’s difficult to get a date from them at all. They run at about 95 percent capacity. August is not a popular time for tenancy and it happened to be the same time as Jimmy’s show. I’ve been doing this a long time, and you’re always looking for the least bad date.”
Fensterman stressed he’d rather not hold the event on the same weekend as the East Coast National and less than a month after The National in Cleveland.
“We respect the hell out of The National and the East Coast National,” Fensterman said. “We are interested in helping them and boosting them. We’re here to grow the hobby.”
Attendance and an Exclusive Product
Fanatics recently announced show exclusive Topps Chrome Baseball boxes that offer collectors the chance to nab “Big Apple Refractors” cards. The print run for each card is less than 50.
The sets will be sold both as Value boxes and Hobby boxes. The refractor cards will fall six per Hobby box, guaranteeing six cards per box with a print run of less than 50.
Attendance is expected to be high, given the show’s location and the number of guest appearances. Fensterman knows expectations are high.
“There is a ton of pressure,” he said. We don’t do things small—we’re building a big show. We think we’ve got an event that’s going to wow people. We’re building a great card show, but also a really cool, immersive, interactive sports festival for people who aren’t into the hobby, and then we can bring them into the hobby.”
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