Fanatics Fest will add an additional day, feature more event space and run alongside the World Cup final when it returns to New York’s Javits Center in 2026, Fanatics formally announced Friday.
A three-day event in 2024 and 2025, Fanatics Fest will run from July 16-19 in 2026, with Sunday overlapping with the FIFA World Cup final just miles away at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The third flagship event organized under the company’s Fanatics Events division, the shift is a notable change from 2025’s June show, but offers Fanatics a chance to collaborate with a prestigious sporting event that lands just once every four years.
“Honestly, we see this as a once-in-a-probably-lifetime opportunity,” Fanatics Events CEO Lance Fensterman told cllct. “World Cup in the New York-New Jersey area, it felt too good to not capitalize on. We’ll be back in June in the future — we love those dates, that’s a good spot. This was just a really unique opportunity.”
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Plans are far from finalized for what collaborations could look like, but Fensterman says Fanatics Fest has a clear game plan with goals in place. In addition to FIFA, Fanatics hopes to leverage relationships with current partners for soccer trading cards, which include the Premier League, Major League Soccer and Ligue 1’s Paris Saint-Germain FC.
For Fanatics, those collaborations will aim to be multi-dimensional to include league activations, memorabilia, player appearances, content creators and podcasters, and exclusive and limited-edition merchandise.
As part of the show’s expansion into four days, Fanatics worked with the Javits Center to secure 25% more event space, which adds about 80,000 square-feet and the North Javits building. Fanatics plans to use the additional space to reorganize its previous layout and include more interactive exhibitions, including another stage and more space for autographs on the lower level.
Fanatics Fest saw an increase in attendance from 70,000 fans in 2024 to more than 125,000 across three days in 2025, and the event hopes to grow again in 2026 with a fourth day and attendance from fans in the area for the World Cup.
“It’s content-driven,” Fensterman said. “If we’ve got great activations and great talent — and that talent is going to be onstage and signing and doing photo-ops — I think soccer fans would love to make the trip and see what we have to offer. That’s really where we’ll concentrate our efforts. When we build things that people want, they’ll come and support.”
Though the shift to align with the World Cup offers an opportunity for Fanatics to deliver its biggest event yet, it also presents a number of logistical challenges. Fans for both events will naturally compete for limited hotel space, though data suggests roughly 80% of those who attended Fanatics Fest in 2025 were from the New York City Tri-State Area, making a day-trip possible if overnight lodging is difficult.
There are also major challenges for the most passionate sports and trading card collectors specifically. Fanatics Fest 2026 ends just 10 days prior to the 2026 National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Illinois, which runs July 29 to Aug. 2. With dates so close together, some collectors might be forced to choose one event over the other.
They say third time's the charm, so of course we gotta RUN IT BACK???? @fanaticsfest returns July 16 - 19 at the Javits Center in NYC.
— Fanatics (@Fanatics) October 10, 2025
The only way to find out how we top 2025 is to see us in 2026! ????
Tickets go on sale in November ????????️ pic.twitter.com/qAkJFdrUKW
Fanatics Fest’s July dates also directly overlap with the West Coast Card Show in Anaheim, California, and the Dallas Card Show. Fanatics Fest organizers have reiterated since its launch in 2024 that, though it has a large trading card show — one that some now believe is one of the best — there is no intention to directly compete with the National or any of the flagship card shows across the nation.
Industry sources told cllct in September that Fanatics Fest’s shift into July was a one-time move to capture interest from the World Cup, and it plans to return to a June window in 2027 and beyond. Fensterman doubled down on that sentiment, telling cllct Fanatics Fest has been in touch with other organizers to offer its long-term support for those events.
“We view ourselves as stewards of the hobby, and the National is the most important event on the hobby calendar, so we don’t ever want to interfere with that,” Fensterman said. “We’re huge supporters of the National. We’re big customers, so we see this as a likely once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We don’t want it to come at the expense of the National.”
Among the changes fans can expect in 2026 will be a potential expansion of the Fanatics Games, the skill-based competition that had fans face off against celebrities and professional athletes for more than $2 million in cash and prizes. Seven-time Super Bowl champion, card shop owner and friend of the Fanatics family Tom Brady won the $1 million grand prize on the event’s final day — Brady said he planned to gift $5,000 to each of the 50 contestants and donate the rest to charity.
Improvements to Fanatics Games in 2026 could include a live-streaming element and bleachers for fans to more easily view each competition as they rotate across the space.
Fanatics Fest is also aiming to improve its sports and trading card show for the third year. Immediate feedback from dealers and collectors was positive for 2025 after the show was reorganized and made more central to the overall event compared to 2024. According to Fensterman, dealer space has already “essentially sold out” for 2026, even prior to dates being officially announced.
Fanatics plans to “plus-up” the space to better the look and feel and is aiming for an improved focus on educating new collectors. Of the fans polled by Fanatics from 2025, roughly 70% described themselves as either casual or non-collectors, and Fanatics hopes to convert some of that number into regular hobbyists.
“There’s a huge opportunity to onboard people, and we’re working with Topps to figure it out,” Fensterman said. "How do we educate people? How do we tell people what the hobby is? We all know the best way to do that is to start to participate, so that’s something we have to figure out.”
Tickets for Fanatics Fest 2026 will go on sale in early November with pre-sale perks available for those returning.
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.