By Mark Seavy  

As Fanatics closes the books on its second fan festival, many are wondering whether the event will become the sports equivalent of Comic-Con.   

Because while the recent Fanatics Fest in New York attracted star athletes, teams, and the major professional sports leagues, it was short on licensed product suppliers and leagues without a direct business relationship with the company.    

To be sure, companies acquired by Fanatics over the years —including WinCraft (2020), Topps (2022), Mitchell & Ness (2022) and others—had a major presence in selling merchandise at the event alongside trading card vendors. Additionally, several leagues or racing circuits outside the “big four” (NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL) had booth space, including World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Formula 1.   

However, several significant organizations were not present, including a number of women’s professional sports leagues—like the WNBA, National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), and Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWSL)—and individual sports like pro tennis and golf. Also missing were many non-Fanatics-owned licensees that typically attend other major sports licensing-focused events, like the Sports Licensing and Tailgate Show in Las Vegas. At Comic-Con, meanwhile, there is no relationship between the show operator and exhibitors. That show is typically home to film studios, toy manufacturers, and videogames companies.   

Both Comic-Con and Fanatics Fest, however, are focused on the fan experience, which is why many in the industry believe that Fanatics Fest could become a sports showcase in the same way Comic-Con serves as a platform for entertainment properties.   

Attendance at the three-day event reached 125,000 this year, up from 70,000 in 2024. And while Fanatics lost $15 million on the event in 2024, the festival moved toward profitability this year, Fanatics executives told Sportico.   

“Fanatics has the inside track on creating the equivalent of Comic-Con for sports,” said Steve Scebelo, Chief Commercial Officer at the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA). “It’s what they have already accomplished in the second year of Fanatics Fest and there is no other equivalent in existence. And that is possible specifically because of the deep relationships Fanatics holds across sports, including with leagues, clubs, players associations, and the players themselves, in the U.S. and around the globe.”  

Those relationships contributed to a feeling that viral moments at Fanatics Fest were occurring all the time. This was in contrast to the feeling of having to be in the right place at the right time to experience a major event, which is the case at many other shows, according to sports executives.     

Indeed, NBA star Kevin Durant was on stage at the event when it was announced the Phoenix Suns had traded him to the Houston Rockets. And San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in February, spoke publicly for the first time since the injury while fielding questions from comedian Kevin Hart during the latter’s Cold as Balls show that featured interviews with sports stars while in an ice bath.   

Wembanyama also played chess with fans while Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris paid $500,000 for a rare Jayden Daniels Panini Prizm Black Finite 1-of-1 rookie card, an acquisition made during a trade night at the event. Harris also made news after the show as the owner of a new WNBA franchise in Philadelphia, which will start play in 2030.  

And former NFL star quarterback Tom Brady was seemingly everywhere at Fanatics Fest, including marking his arrival at the event by walking down the WWE runway to the entrance music of star wrestler Cody Rhodes. Yet despite the range of star attractions, the focus of the event was clearly on the Fanatics brand.   

The event “makes people love Fanatics,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told The New York Times’ The Athletic. “The way we can pull together 300 of the world’s best athletes, artists, celebrities together with every sport in the world that matters and have them all in one place… We invest a lot of money in this. We lose a lot of money doing this. But this is the way we tell the Fanatics story. We have all our businesses here. We bring everything here. It’s just the way we want to tell our story… Putting this on is harder than running our three businesses [commerce, collectibles, and betting] combined.”