When it comes to running massive pop-culture shows, Fanatics Events CEO Lance Fensterman knows exactly what he’s doing.
The former ReedPop president helped launch New York Comic Con, PAX and Star Wars Celebration, after all.
But a little less than a year after the debut of Fanatics Fest NYC, Fensterman can still recall the anxiety he felt before the show.
Billed as a comic con for sports fans, Fanatics Fest aimed to do something that hadn’t been attempted. For Fensterman and his team, it was new, it was unique and it was scary.
Now less than three weeks before Fanatics Fest NYC heads back to the Javits Center from June 20-22, Fensterman says he’s still somewhat surprised they pulled it off to begin with.
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“We weren’t trying to build a card show. We were trying to build something that was kind of the intersection of collecting, sports, culture and entertainment, and I think we pulled it off,” Fensterman told cllct. “I think it was a very ambitious vision. And I think, to our own surprise — Saturday night at the show, it was like, 'Whoa. We actually did it. We survived.'”
In total, more than 70,000 fans and collectors piled into the Javits Center last year during a three-day show packed with athletes, celebrities, autographs and activities.
Somewhat skeptical of the concept at first, professional sports leagues immediately won over the youngest attendees, with kids rushing to take on the NFL’s 40-yard dash or shoot hockey pucks into laundry machines with the NHL. Out of all the brands present, WWE emerged as the clear winner, with fans of all ages eager to participate in their own superstar entrances.
At the highest level, Fanatics Fest NYC 2024 was an overwhelming success for the company’s new events division. Fensterman is a realist, though, and he notices the misses just as much as the makes.
Fanatics Fest wasn’t meant to be a card show in the same spirit as the National Sports Collectors Convention, but it did want to deliver new or former collectors back to the hobby. The show did that, but with mixed results.
Fanatics believes about 30% to 40% of those in attendance were hardcore collectors, about 30% were casual or lapsed collectors, and the rest didn’t know much about the hobby. According to Fensterman, Fanatics Fest’s process for autographs and photographs was too disorganized, and the card show itself felt too disconnected from the rest of the event.
While there was an abundance of activity and excitement in the rest of the Javits Center, there was simply too stark a division from the card show.
“My mantra with our team is we’re going to make mistakes — I don’t have a problem with mistakes, let’s just make new ones every year,” Fensterman said. “Let’s make new mistakes, let’s fix the stuff that we love and go try something that’s exciting and ambitious that we think the fans will love. It may not work the first time, but that’s OK. Keep swinging.”
Among the most significant changes to Fanatics Fest this year will be a complete revamp of the collectibles and memorabilia strategy.
Fensterman says the area for photographs and autographs has been reorganized with a much bigger space that will be easier to navigate. The show’s memorabilia museum was well-received, so Fanatics is making it about 400% bigger in terms of size, scope and overall value of items.
The space for the card show dealers will be unrecognizable — mostly because it’s completely different. Fanatics Fest will be anchored around a live-breaking arena in the middle with dealers sprinkled throughout the entire space, rather than tucked to one side together.
For the Fanatics Events team, leaning into what worked well is just as important as fixing what went wrong. Simple things such as exclusive apparel drops and trading card releases will be bigger in 2025. Collectors scooped up the 12 exclusive merchandise pieces last year, so Fanatics expanded the offering to more than 70 with a number of brand collaborations.
After dropping two exclusive trading card sets in 2024, Fanatics has expanded to three in-person-only releases for 2025 — among the sets is a third collaboration with musician Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack brand, which has consistently been a winner since the first Topps drop last year.
There will be more celebrities and athletes than ever, too. The total lineup is increasing from 300 guests in 2024 to more than 500 in 2025. That increase means more panels and athlete discussions, which Fensterman said required some buy-in from the stars themselves.
In the pop-culture world, Fensterman is used to seeing TV and movie stars embrace engaging with fans in a number of ways. For many athletes, fan interactions largely start and end with an autograph, a handshake or a photo.
“It was really a challenge to convince some of these athletes, not so much to do this, but that people would care,” Fensterman said. “To us, it was second nature from where we came from.”
For 2025, Fanatics Fest will host more than 20 panels and programs, including shows ranging from “The QB Playbook,” which will include Dan Marino, John Elway, C.J. Stroud and Jayden Daniels, to the “Only in New York” panel, which features Spike Lee, Derek Jeter, CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte and LeBron James’ “The Shop” podcast.
New twists to the programming include the “Sports Films Hall of Fame” panel, which will explore the greatest sports films ever with Michael Strahan and Kevin Costner.
Fensterman is also hoping to see more engagement between athletes and the fans directly — he admits seeing Rob Gronkowski get involved to run the 40-yard dash is a concept he’d likely try to steal and apply to pop culture events if he were still running them.
For now, Fensterman and his team are aiming to take Fanatics Fest in new directions they might not have expected. They’ll double down when things work and revamp when they don’t.
“Be better, be bigger, be bolder. Some days at Fanatics, it feels like nothing’s ever big enough or good enough ... There's no idea that’s too big for this audience, right?” Fensterman said. “Some days that feels like pressure. Some days that feels like freedom.”
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.