Fanatics wants to bring Comic-Con experience to the hobby with new company

So it looks like Fanatics will now enter the live events space with the announcement of Fanatics Events launching.

This news comes on the heels of the company launching its breaking platform, Fanatics Live, earlier this week at the MLB All-Star Game.

Fanatics will be the majority owner in a partnership with IMG, the company behind The Mint Collective in Vegas, working to organize global events that resemble a comic-con experience starting in 2024.

Yahoo Sports reports Fanatics Events will begin by focusing on events based around trading cards and collectibles and will include celebrity talks, limited edition apparel, and musical performances.

ReedPop Founder Lance Fensterman will act as Fanatics Events CEO, and he told Sports Business Journal there will be programming specifically geared to the hobby, including fan and collector education, access to industry experts, business-to-business content to help hobby shops and pro collectors grow their businesses.

Fanatics announces new company, Fanatics Events, that aims to bring together sports, collectibles, memorabilia, fashion, music, and entertainment.

The new company will be majority owned by Fanatics, includes IMG as a minority partner.

Expect company to make a run competing…

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 13, 2023

Fanatics Events also affects TriStar, who has been running the auto pavillion at the National forever, as well as other autograph shows.

What if Fanatics athletes can’t do shows outside of the Fanatics Events shows?

What happens to the National and other shows?

— Sooz ⚾ (@yanxchick) July 13, 2023

Hobby folks have already started reacting to the news on social media, some even raising questions.

Fensterman says the first mission is to grow the collectibles community and bring more people into the hobby.

ReedPop created events like New York ComicCon and Star Wars Celebration.