Fanatics Creating Their Own Shows, How Does This Effect The Future of The Hobby?

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Tony Gordon

Funny that SCD would get that article wrong because Fanatics purchased SCD’s old Chicago Sportsfest show many years ago and moved it from Schaumburg to Rosemont. Prior, Fanatics purchased the Chicago Sun-Times show, renamed it Fanatics Authentics Sports Spectacular. They ran several Sports Spectacular shows in Florida and in Boston as well.

So Fanatics did a shite job with those shows. Many dealers, such as myself, dropped out. I believe it was employees from Fanatics that purchased the Sports Spectacular. I could be wrong and quite possibly Fanatics still runs the show. Anyway the Chicago Sports Spectacular has gotten much better these past few years and I started to set up again. However, booth fees have gone way up. I’m not sure if I’m setting up at their March show. They may have priced me out.

The gist of the story is that Fanatics is not new to operating card shows. Based on their history operating shows, I do not expect their new card show wing to dazzle anybody.

What so many promoters lose sight of is "content first", I promoted a music festival for 25 years, cardinal rule was to have a compelling line up or content.
Everybody thinks this stuff is easy, it ain't. Squeezing your content providers is not the way. I'd posit a creative business model that was based on sales might be better, base rate for dealers and a percentage of gross sales to get rid of the museum Nancys, reward high net buyers with premium access/discounts etc.
Think Vegas, reward the money spenders and content providers, move it up the exclusive ladder and ditch the tire kickers, it's not a hard concept just takes some creativity.