By Mark Seavy  

With the explosive growth of the sports landscape, the once rigid lines that separated it from entertainment IPs have now blurred. 

And while the two have always played well together (just ask Michael Jordon, Bugs Bunny, and “Casey at the Bat”), the growth of that bond was in clear evidence at Fanatics Fest in New York this past weekend. 

Gone are the barriers that previously distinguished sports shows from the likes of Comic-Con or Anime Expo—properties from both worlds secured space on the floor of the four-day event, which attracted more than 400 athletes and celebrities as well as thousands of fans. 

Disney, for example, took booth space at Fanatics Fest and launched a co-branded apparel collection (hoodies, t-shirts, caps) with Authentic Brands Group’s Champion brand. The collaboration combined 32 NFL teams with the likes of Buzz Lightyear (New York Jets), Captain Hook (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and Darth Vader (Las Vegas Raiders). NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was featured at the event as part of a “Disney Draft Day.” 

Microsoft’s Activision videogames studio, meanwhile, staked out a booth at the event to promote, among other things, the upcoming October 23 release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. New York Yankees players Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm played the game head-to-head at the show.  

New Era launched a limited-edition baseball cap collection in March that blended characters from Disney’s The Simpsons (the entertainment giant acquired the rights in buying the 21st Century Fox film and television studios in 2019) with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.  

Dick’s Sporting Goods and its recent acquisition Foot Locker were also among exhibitors at Fanatics Fest, with the former featuring its Collectors Clubhouse that has been installed at 45 locations (35 of which are in 100,000-120,000-square-foot House of Sport stores). In addition to sports memorabilia, the Clubhouse carries Pokémon, Disney’s Lorcana, and Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends trading cards. The latter is part of a licensing agreement with Fanatics’ Topps that launched in 2024 and featured the newly released Chrome Sapphire Edition at Fanatics Fest. 

“The [Disney] consumer products group is pushing the envelope a bit by intentionally showing up in places where you don’t see us a lot,” said Cullen Garlock, Director of Communications for Events at Disney Experiences. “It is all because of creators and social media that everything [between sports and entertainment] is blurring and moving much faster.” 

That speed has been accelerated by the sports world’s ability to gain attention across different generations, income brackets, political ideologies, and geographies (the popularity of the FIFA World Cup being a recent example). This means that, for Gen Z and Millennial consumers, the boundaries that kept sports and entertainment IPs apart for older generations have long since eroded. 

“For the last few years, and ever since the introduction of sport betting, everything has become more showman like,” said a spokesperson for Lids, which has added sports and entertainment collectibles to its stores. “The younger fans have grown on both ends and view sports and entertainment as one. The older crowd sees them as separate, but the younger ones want to see more entertainment at games.”  

That entertainment has come from the likes of Hello Kitty and author Mo Willems’ Hidden Pigeon Co. giveaways at many Major League Baseball parks, for example. And FIFA’s first halftime show at the World Cup final on July 19 ran 27 minutes and featured the likes of Madonna, Justin Bieber, and Shakira. 

Moving forward, the merging of entertainment and sports IPs would be remiss to ignore the rising monetary value of collectibles. Rare limited-edition trading cards and other collectibles have soared in value, and more than 250 hobby shops were at this year’s Fanatics Fest.  

RBC Sports Cards, for example, pulled the one-of-one “Lucky Black Cat” card in the Superfractor (Erupt!) Topps Chrome VeeFriends release in June that attracted a $120,000 private bid and a $100,000 bounty from renowned collector Mike Jy.  

And Mimai-based The GLD Shop launched a jewelry collection at Fanatics Fest featuring MLB, NBA, NCAA, and NFL pendants, earrings, chains, and bracelets ($100-$200) that Fanatics’ sports nostalgia apparel supplier Mitchell & Ness sells at its flagship store in Philadelphia, PA. GLD also launched test sales at a Foot Locker store in Atlanta, GA and is in 15 Lids locations, said James Ferry, Public Relations & Operations at GLD. 

“A lot of people collect for a lot of different reasons,” said Andrew Bruce, Community Manager at VeeFriends. “And as well sell through hobby shops and sporting goods stores, we open ourselves to a whole new audience.”