Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
The Stephen A. Smith Show focused on the upcoming Fanatics Fest 2025 and a one-on-one interview with Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin.
🔹 Summary
This episode centers around the second annual Fanatics Fest NYC, a large-scale sports and culture festival created by Michael Rubin, CEO of Fanatics. Stephen A. Smith interviews Rubin about the event’s origins, growth, and what fans can expect this year. The conversation highlights:
- The expansion of Fanatics Fest from 70,000 attendees in its inaugural year to an expected 100,000+ in 2025.
- The inclusion of major sports leagues and brands like the NFL, NBA, FIFA, F1, Nike, and more.
- A new “Fanatics Games” competition with $2 million in prizes, featuring celebrities and fans.
- Appearances by high-profile athletes and entertainers including Tom Brady, Eli Manning, Jay-Z, Kevin Hart, and Travis Scott.
- Stephen A.’s excitement and involvement in the event, including his show First Take broadcasting live from the venue.
Strategic Messaging
- Fanatics Fest is positioned as the “Comic-Con of sports,” a unique, immersive fan experience.
- Rubin emphasizes inclusivity, fan engagement, and the blending of sports and pop culture.
- The event is also a brand-building exercise for Fanatics, aiming to become a “beloved company.”
🔹 Highlighted Quotes
“There had never been a sports festival… Fanatics was the only one that could bring all the sports together.”
— Michael Rubin on the uniqueness of Fanatics Fest.“We want to build a beloved company… This is a small piece of how you do that.”
— Rubin on the deeper mission behind the event.“I couldn’t believe how packed it was… and then Tom Brady showed up.”
— Stephen A. reflecting on the energy of the first Fanatics Fest.“We’re doing the Fanatics Games… $2 million in total cash and prizes.”
— Rubin on the new competitive element of the event.“I want the average fan to win.”
— Rubin emphasizing fan inclusion and accessibility.
🔹 Key Themes 1. 🎉 Fan Engagement & Experience
- Fanatics Fest is designed to be an immersive, interactive celebration of sports and culture.
- Activities include competitions, meet-and-greets, live shows, and brand activations.
2. 🌍 Sports as Pop Culture
- The event blends sports with music, fashion, and entertainment.
- Celebrities from various industries are involved, making it a cultural crossover event.
3. 🏆 Competition & Prizes
- The “Fanatics Games” introduces a competitive edge with real stakes.
- Both fans and celebrities participate, blurring the line between audience and performer.
4. 📈 Brand Building
- Fanatics is positioning itself not just as a retailer, but as a lifestyle and experience brand.
- The event is a strategic move to deepen emotional connections with fans.
5. 🤝 Community & Connection
- Rubin emphasizes bringing people together and creating memorable shared experiences.
- Stephen A. highlights the camaraderie and excitement of being part of something big.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
All right, everybody, listen up with all the big time
sports action that's happening each and every single.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Day, and Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Smith Show wants to make sure you are taking advantage
of it all. That's why we partnered with Prize Picks,
the best place to win cash while watching sports. The
app is really easy to use, you know. To create
a lineup, all you have to do is pick more
or less on a few player stats. Okay, choose from
any of your favorite players Jalen Williams, Shake Gil Just Alexander, Pascal,
Siakam all in the same entry, then sit back and watch.
(00:30):
The list is absolutely endless. You can play Prizects in
over forty states, including California and Texas. Best of all,
Prospects will give you fifty dollars in lineups. When you
play your first five dollar lineup. Winna lose, You'll get
fifty bucks in lineups. Just use promo codeessas and download
Prize Picks now again.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Download the app and.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Use code says to get fifty dollars in lineups instantly
after your first five dollar lineup. Proze Pects, Hey, hey,
run your game.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
What's up? Everybody?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Welcome to this edition to the Steph Nick Smith Show
coming at you at the very least three times a
week over the digital airways of YouTube and of course
iHeart Radio. As always, I like to take a moment
to pause and thank my subscribers and followers for the
support and love that they continue to show in this direction.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Courtesy of millions of downloads over iHeart Radio over the
last few months, and now audience and a subscriber base
that's eclipped one point twenty four million over the digital
airways of YouTube, we continue to flourish as a show.
The momentum continues to rise, and obviously that's thanks to
all of you. Without you, there is no me, So
thank you so much for your love and support. Keep
(01:53):
it coming, and I'm gonna keep on coming. To continue
to like and follow the show, just click the bell
and get notified for all of our newest content, and
you too shall consider yourself the latest member of Stephen A.
Smith's your family. And while you're doing that, please make
sure to pick up a copy of my New York
Times best selling book, Straight Shooter, a Memoir of Second
Chances and First Takes, now in paperback. Just go to
Straight Shoot a book dot com and get yourself a copy.
(02:14):
Once again, straight shoot a book dot com to get
yourself a copy. You know, on this particular day, I
can't wait to talk to the one guest that I'm
gonna have for this particular show. It's iso. It's me
one on one with somebody and his name would happened
to be Michael Rubin. He is the founder and the
boss for Fanatics and every year since last year. Last
(02:37):
year was this inaugural year. This year again they're having
something called fanatic Fest. When you think about Comic Con
and you think about things of that nature, fanatics Fest
essentially is the sports version of all of that, where
you just bring the entire sports world together and they
descend upon one locale to celebrate sports in a variety
of ways, games and guest hosts and all of this
(03:00):
other stuff that's going on. And fanatics Fest was obviously
a wonderful, wonderful experience when I experienced it last year. First,
take my day job on ESPN airing every weekday Warned
from ten am to twelve noon was their live for
the debut of fanatics Fest. Last year, seventy thousand people
(03:20):
showed up at the last minute for fanatics Fest. This year,
it's expected that over one hundred thousand people will show
up and it's going to continue to grow and proliferate
before our very eyes, and I can't wait. I'm very,
very excited. But no matter how excited I am, I'm
not nearly as excited as the man that I'm.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
About to talk to next.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
As you will see, it's a one on one conversation
about fanatics Fest and all that it entails with the originator,
the founder himself, the one and only Michael Rubin. He
is here with me right now. Take a look, my
guess is the founder and CEO one of the biggest
digital sports platforms that connects fans with their favorite sports figures.
(04:05):
He's joining me now to discuss the second annual Fanatics
Fest n YC. Please welcome to one and only Michael
Rubin to the show.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
What's up, big time? How are you man? How's everything?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I'm getting excited, man, A couple of days away. Ready
Fanac's Fest number two.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
We're ready to go, baby, damn right, damn right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Last year's inaugural fanatics Fest was a huge success. Obviously
I was there. How many people were there? And how
many are you expecting this year?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
We had seventy thousand people in the first year, and
we're definitely gonna have well over one hundred thousand people
in year two.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I mean last year we started with the NFL, the NBA, Hockey, Baseball,
WW and UFC. In addition to all six of those
sports coming back, we now have FIFA Premier League F one, Nike, Usta,
Dick Sporting Good.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So it's gonna be a movie. I'm psyching.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
I just looked at the list this morning of all
of the athletes and artists and celebrities coming. I think
we have three times amount of people coming from last
year this year. I mean, just some of the biggest
names in sports and culture. So it's gonna be a blast.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Explain to the audience how you originally came up with
this idea, What was the motivation of the impetus for
it all.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Explain that, Yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Know, I had been to so many music festivals. It's
like Coachello. I've been to south By Southwest, I'd been
to Comic Con, and I'd been to the National which
a big training card show, and like, I wondered, why
is there no sports festival, and I like.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Say to my team, like, gottlam check, is there any
in the world? There really wasn't. There had never been
a sports festival.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
There had been like, you know, FanFest with the Super
Bowl for the NFL, or a fan fest with the
NBA All Star Game, but never really a sports festival.
I think the reason was there was nobody other than
Fanax that could really corral all the different sports together
and then also have individual partnerships with so many athletes
that mattered to bring.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
It all together. So, you know, typical.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Fanac style, we just said let's go for it, no
idea whether it was going to work or not.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And three weeks before launched last year, I'm like, how
to get myself into this?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
This is too hard and I'm like, wait a second,
that's not like that's all right, So we're gonna make
it work. And sure enough, seventy thousand people came the
first year, and people just had an amazing time.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
And that's what made this all worth while.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I seeing just so many happy fans and this is
the most incredible weekend of their lives. And look, Steve
en A, you came and opened it up last year.
I remember watching many thousands of people just cheering, going
crazy watching your show, and I didn't know what to expect, Like,
I mean, three weeks earlier, I was like, how do
(06:38):
I get myself into this mess? So, you know, it
was a great weekend. And for me, this is really
just about a fan give back. Like, look, I think
it's very easy to build a big company, it's not
easy to build a beloved company. And we want to
build a beloved company, and we're just getting started with
doing that. And you know, we've done done certain things
really well and other things we haven't done well enough,
but we really you know, our dream is to make
(06:59):
an accent beloved company in the world, and this is
a small piece of how you do that because you
connect with you know, one hundred thousand plus fans live
and then also you know, hundreds of millions of people
via social media to see what happens there, and it
makes people really have a special relationship with the fanatics.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Now, talk to us about what you believe you've done well,
particularly with the Fanatics Fest. What is it that occurs
there that really stands out that makes it such enjoyable
for the fans to the point where seventy thousand shows
up at the first ever event, and now you're expecting
over one hundred thousand people to show up this Friday.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
What is it that goes on there? It has people
so riled up about it. I think there's so much
to do for everybody.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Like take somebody like yourself, who has access to anything
in the world.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
But you could go there and spend three days, you'd
see so.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Many people that you love, so many people that you
want to catch up with.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
And by the way, I know, you'd be.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Like doing different competitions, whether it's being in an F
one car or you know you're ww walkout or how
hard can you punch the UFC punching bag. It's just
like there's so much to do for everybody. I can't
wait to go. They just start sending me pictures. I'm
going Thursday night because like I don't get to really
experience it during the festival because I'm just going from
person to person trying to make sure everything's going well.
(08:17):
But it's like the inner kid in us comes out
because there's just so many great things to do and
so many great people to see.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
It's so much great content to watch.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Like I love that you're opening up, you know with
first take this year from ten to twelve Friday morning,
but there's six different stages with content every hour on
the hour, and whether you're a football fan or WW
fan or UFC fan, or you're a WNBA fan, there's
just great content, great people, great activations. And the thing
(08:46):
that's most interesting is how many people come from ten
to seven Friday and Saturday and ten to four on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
They want to be there the entire time.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
So that talks about just the amount of action that
exists a fanatics fest.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well, I got a busy schedule, especially covering these NBA Finals,
but I would have been there just for you to
begin with. But to have the time that I had
last year, it was electric. I couldn't believe how packed
it was. I could have believed how site everybody was
to be there. And then on top of all, Tom
Brady showed up, Peyton Manning showed up, Alan Arbison showed up.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I mean, every damn body was there.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Who can people expect to see this year? Is that
something that you're a secret that you're holding there? Did
to you until Friday?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Now we have.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
We've already announced I think three times the amount of athletes, artists,
celebrities coming this year versus last year. So in one
of the things we did is removed the festival from
August until June because we wanted to have active NFL players.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
If you remember last year we did in August.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
The problem with that was all the NFL guys were
already in pre season. This year, in the NFL, we've
got I think a third and a half of the
starting NFL quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Got Jaden Daniels, c J.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Strode, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow. I know, we've
got guys like Michael Parsons, DeVante Adams, CD Lamb.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Justin Jefferson.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I mean, there's so many, and I think there's fifty
current NFL stars there. In basketball, you got Bron Wemby,
kd Kat, James Harden and the amount of people even
hitting me saying hey, Rube, like I want to come.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It's just like you got room for me. So everyone's
been hitting me all weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
By we got Kevin Hart coming, Jay Z, Travis Scott.
I mean, I remember last year Jay looked at me,
He's like we were in the forty forty and he
looked at me.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
He said, this is the most incredible thing, Like Traff.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Took over and he's now the house DJ at forty forty,
Like this is the most insane thing in the world.
And by the way, trafvor at the time of his life.
It's like everyone's coming back and so many more people.
And one of the things you know about me, I
love getting people together. And it's great to see so
many great people getting together and so many great things
that come from that. So you know, that's you know,
there are a lot of things I suck up at.
(11:03):
One of the things, I'm not bad. It's just bringing
breef people together and letting great outcomes come from that.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So I think we're gonna see a lot of that an.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
AX Best issue too, And the content is amazing, Like
if you just look day by day, hour by hour,
what are all the different things I can do? There's
so much to do, but you know talent, I mean,
it's you're just gonna see people walking back and forth
through the aisle.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It's like crazy because there's so much to do. You know.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I'm also here in the prize pool. There's a prize
pool that's gonna take place, that's gonna include about two
million in total cash and prizes.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Is that true? Two million in total catch and prizes?
It is true.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And the funny thing is I just have been thanking
people for coming right before I jumped on here, and
the last person I hit was Eli Manning, and I
guess he didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
So we're doing the Fanatics games.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
And what the Fanatics games are, We're doing eight different
athletic competitions.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
You take your best six scores, you drop your worse too.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
So it's things like football throwing accuracy, Baseball pitching accuracy,
ww walk out you have ce punching accuracy accuracy. So anyway, again,
you take your best six scores, you drop me worse two.
So and we pair people in groups of two or
three to go through the different games, kind of like God,
you're competing on your own, but we still pair people,
and just for sport, we decide to pair.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Originally, Kalid called me. He's like, Yo, do you see
my run? Man? I'm so fast, he said, I want
Brady in the games. He said, Brady may be able
to beat me football, but I'll beast. I said. He
was fast, reallytic, It's.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Amazing what you can do with AI these days. So
so Khalid called me. He said, I want to take
on Brady. So he's talking a lot of smack, talking
a lot of smacks. So Khaled said, I could beat
him in basketball, I could beat him in baseball, I
could beat him.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
In WW walkout.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So originally I called Brady and Brady said that may
have better have an ambulance to follow him around like that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
That was his response. Then I realized we're missing something.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
How do we not have Tommy and Eli going up
against each other? So now we got a little threesome
guarding off Tommy, Eli and Kalich. So there's gonna be
a lot of shit talk during that. During that little
uh threesome going down.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
It's gonna be hilarious.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It's gonna be hilaric because DJ Kylla can't play no
damn basketball. Now golf might be a different matter, but
he can't play any damn basketball. I already saw him
do that. He needs to stop that Dons sense, by
the way, before I let's get on out of here.
I got a couple of things. Number One, I gotta
produce some mine. His brother is gonna be competing in
some event.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
He's one of the fifty fans that got picked.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
And by the way, we're root we're rooting for your guys, brother,
because you know it, if we can have an incredibly
athletic don professional athlete win this, that's the best of
the wall.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
A lot of our common friends are talking a lot
of smack called me, say, yo, I'm taking that bag
of a million dollars home.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yo, I'm driving that five hundred thousandsf Ferrari out of there. Yo.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I'm taking that two thousand and three tops Lebron James
rookie card. This what quarter million dollars, I'm taking that home.
So I'm rooting for your guys brother.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I want him to win. I want the average fando wins.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
And we try to cast this right, make sure there's
some good competition, so that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And we may needs use.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Steven A to come commuentate, give a little bit of
you know, when we got brading, Eli and Kali going down,
you may need to jump in there and just do
ten minutes of comedy because watching those guys.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Go competing, yeae, that's you trying to add more work.
That's not trying to add more work to me, Michael,
you know you're trying to add more work to me.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
You do anything, so you know you coming in and
be able to make fun of college.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I'm getting a little eli tellmy competition go, we need
you man now.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I will say this though, I mean, I understand it's
not your fault. You know, I'm gonna leave it alone,
you know, because I know people get a little sensitive
if I'm around because I'm in the media and stuff
like that. But I do get a little jealous when
I see other people at the White Party. I'm not
gonna front because it's.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Other people in the media.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I'm like this, I would look better than them rocking
all white. I've rocked my all white outfits from time
to time. I would like something like that, but I'm not.
I couldna be mad about it because I'm coming to fanatics, pest,
But I just want you to know me at.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
The right.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
I was honored to just send you the shoes that
only came to the people for the White Party. Even
though there could be some white people the White Party
you may have been a little critical of over the years,
maybe like quarter of the White Party, you.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Know, But and you're just doing your job. You doing
what you do. But I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Make sure you have their shoes because their shoes are specials.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Anything. That's where no one could say shit.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
You gotta be there, and you gotta be you, and
I love you being you because you're the best.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I'm gonna be there, man, and I'm looking forward to it.
The one and only Michael Ruber for Fanatics. Fanatics Fest
second Edition. Oh it's gonna be specially y'all. Javitson in
New York City is big time, no doubt. Over seventy
over one hundred thousand people showing up. I can't wait
to be there. I look forward to seeing you Friday.
My man can't and my brother love you, man, great senior,
all right, same, I love you too, man, One and
(15:56):
only Michael Ruber right here. Fanatics Fests NYC twenty twenty
five takes place June twentieth through the twenty second at
the Jacob Javid Convention Center in.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
New York City.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
For ticket information, go to Fanaticsfest dot com. That's it
for this special edition to the Stephen A.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Smith Show.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I'll be back with you in a couple of days,
if not tomorrow, You never know.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
With me.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
There's a lot to talk about, and I'll be around
to do just that. Until then, This is stephen A
signing off, thanks again to the one and only Michael
Rubin Fanatics Fests this weekend. Check it out Javitt Jacob
Javid Center in New York City. It's a must attend event,
make no mistake about it, and a whole bunch of
people are gonna be there, just like Michael Rubin told you.
Don't miss it, y'all. Until next time, it's a stephen
(16:47):
A signing off. Peace of love, be safe, cou bless
All right, everybody, listen up with all the big time
sports action that's happening each and every single.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Day, and Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Smith Show wants to make sure you are taking advantage
of it all. That's why we partnered with Prize Picks,
the best place to win cash while watching sports. The
app is really easy to use, you know. To create
a lineup, all you have to do is pick more
or less on a few player stats. Okay, choose from
any of your favorite players Jalen Williams, Shake Gil Just Alexander, Pascal,
Siakam all in the same entry, then sit back and watch.
(00:30):
The list is absolutely endless. You can play Prizects in
over forty states, including California and Texas. Best of all,
Prospects will give you fifty dollars in lineups. When you
play your first five dollar lineup. Winna lose, You'll get
fifty bucks in lineups. Just use promo codeessas and download
Prize Picks now again.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Download the app and.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Use code says to get fifty dollars in lineups instantly
after your first five dollar lineup. Proze Pects, Hey, hey,
run your game.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
What's up? Everybody?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Welcome to this edition to the Steph Nick Smith Show
coming at you at the very least three times a
week over the digital airways of YouTube and of course
iHeart Radio. As always, I like to take a moment
to pause and thank my subscribers and followers for the
support and love that they continue to show in this direction.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Courtesy of millions of downloads over iHeart Radio over the
last few months, and now audience and a subscriber base
that's eclipped one point twenty four million over the digital
airways of YouTube, we continue to flourish as a show.
The momentum continues to rise, and obviously that's thanks to
all of you. Without you, there is no me, So
thank you so much for your love and support. Keep
(01:53):
it coming, and I'm gonna keep on coming. To continue
to like and follow the show, just click the bell
and get notified for all of our newest content, and
you too shall consider yourself the latest member of Stephen A.
Smith's your family. And while you're doing that, please make
sure to pick up a copy of my New York
Times best selling book, Straight Shooter, a Memoir of Second
Chances and First Takes, now in paperback. Just go to
Straight Shoot a book dot com and get yourself a copy.
(02:14):
Once again, straight shoot a book dot com to get
yourself a copy. You know, on this particular day, I
can't wait to talk to the one guest that I'm
gonna have for this particular show. It's iso. It's me
one on one with somebody and his name would happened
to be Michael Rubin. He is the founder and the
boss for Fanatics and every year since last year. Last
(02:37):
year was this inaugural year. This year again they're having
something called fanatic Fest. When you think about Comic Con
and you think about things of that nature, fanatics Fest
essentially is the sports version of all of that, where
you just bring the entire sports world together and they
descend upon one locale to celebrate sports in a variety
of ways, games and guest hosts and all of this
(03:00):
other stuff that's going on. And fanatics Fest was obviously
a wonderful, wonderful experience when I experienced it last year. First,
take my day job on ESPN airing every weekday Warned
from ten am to twelve noon was their live for
the debut of fanatics Fest. Last year, seventy thousand people
(03:20):
showed up at the last minute for fanatics Fest. This year,
it's expected that over one hundred thousand people will show
up and it's going to continue to grow and proliferate
before our very eyes, and I can't wait. I'm very,
very excited. But no matter how excited I am, I'm
not nearly as excited as the man that I'm.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
About to talk to next.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
As you will see, it's a one on one conversation
about fanatics Fest and all that it entails with the originator,
the founder himself, the one and only Michael Rubin. He
is here with me right now. Take a look, my
guess is the founder and CEO one of the biggest
digital sports platforms that connects fans with their favorite sports figures.
(04:05):
He's joining me now to discuss the second annual Fanatics
Fest n YC. Please welcome to one and only Michael
Rubin to the show.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
What's up, big time? How are you man? How's everything?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I'm getting excited, man, A couple of days away. Ready
Fanac's Fest number two.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
We're ready to go, baby, damn right, damn right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Last year's inaugural fanatics Fest was a huge success. Obviously
I was there. How many people were there? And how
many are you expecting this year?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
We had seventy thousand people in the first year, and
we're definitely gonna have well over one hundred thousand people
in year two.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I mean last year we started with the NFL, the NBA, Hockey, Baseball,
WW and UFC. In addition to all six of those
sports coming back, we now have FIFA Premier League F one, Nike, Usta,
Dick Sporting Good.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So it's gonna be a movie. I'm psyching.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
I just looked at the list this morning of all
of the athletes and artists and celebrities coming. I think
we have three times amount of people coming from last
year this year. I mean, just some of the biggest
names in sports and culture. So it's gonna be a blast.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Explain to the audience how you originally came up with
this idea, What was the motivation of the impetus for
it all.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Explain that, Yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Know, I had been to so many music festivals. It's
like Coachello. I've been to south By Southwest, I'd been
to Comic Con, and I'd been to the National which
a big training card show, and like, I wondered, why
is there no sports festival, and I like.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Say to my team, like, gottlam check, is there any
in the world? There really wasn't. There had never been
a sports festival.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
There had been like, you know, FanFest with the Super
Bowl for the NFL, or a fan fest with the
NBA All Star Game, but never really a sports festival.
I think the reason was there was nobody other than
Fanax that could really corral all the different sports together
and then also have individual partnerships with so many athletes
that mattered to bring.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
It all together. So, you know, typical.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Fanac style, we just said let's go for it, no
idea whether it was going to work or not.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And three weeks before launched last year, I'm like, how
to get myself into this?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
This is too hard and I'm like, wait a second,
that's not like that's all right, So we're gonna make
it work. And sure enough, seventy thousand people came the
first year, and people just had an amazing time.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
And that's what made this all worth while.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I seeing just so many happy fans and this is
the most incredible weekend of their lives. And look, Steve
en A, you came and opened it up last year.
I remember watching many thousands of people just cheering, going
crazy watching your show, and I didn't know what to expect, Like,
I mean, three weeks earlier, I was like, how do
(06:38):
I get myself into this mess? So, you know, it
was a great weekend. And for me, this is really
just about a fan give back. Like, look, I think
it's very easy to build a big company, it's not
easy to build a beloved company. And we want to
build a beloved company, and we're just getting started with
doing that. And you know, we've done done certain things
really well and other things we haven't done well enough,
but we really you know, our dream is to make
(06:59):
an accent beloved company in the world, and this is
a small piece of how you do that because you
connect with you know, one hundred thousand plus fans live
and then also you know, hundreds of millions of people
via social media to see what happens there, and it
makes people really have a special relationship with the fanatics.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Now, talk to us about what you believe you've done well,
particularly with the Fanatics Fest. What is it that occurs
there that really stands out that makes it such enjoyable
for the fans to the point where seventy thousand shows
up at the first ever event, and now you're expecting
over one hundred thousand people to show up this Friday.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
What is it that goes on there? It has people
so riled up about it. I think there's so much
to do for everybody.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Like take somebody like yourself, who has access to anything
in the world.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
But you could go there and spend three days, you'd
see so.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Many people that you love, so many people that you
want to catch up with.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
And by the way, I know, you'd be.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Like doing different competitions, whether it's being in an F
one car or you know you're ww walkout or how
hard can you punch the UFC punching bag. It's just
like there's so much to do for everybody. I can't
wait to go. They just start sending me pictures. I'm
going Thursday night because like I don't get to really
experience it during the festival because I'm just going from
person to person trying to make sure everything's going well.
(08:17):
But it's like the inner kid in us comes out
because there's just so many great things to do and
so many great people to see.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
It's so much great content to watch.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Like I love that you're opening up, you know with
first take this year from ten to twelve Friday morning,
but there's six different stages with content every hour on
the hour, and whether you're a football fan or WW
fan or UFC fan, or you're a WNBA fan, there's
just great content, great people, great activations. And the thing
(08:46):
that's most interesting is how many people come from ten
to seven Friday and Saturday and ten to four on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
They want to be there the entire time.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
So that talks about just the amount of action that
exists a fanatics fest.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well, I got a busy schedule, especially covering these NBA Finals,
but I would have been there just for you to
begin with. But to have the time that I had
last year, it was electric. I couldn't believe how packed
it was. I could have believed how site everybody was
to be there. And then on top of all, Tom
Brady showed up, Peyton Manning showed up, Alan Arbison showed up.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I mean, every damn body was there.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Who can people expect to see this year? Is that
something that you're a secret that you're holding there? Did
to you until Friday?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Now we have.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
We've already announced I think three times the amount of athletes, artists,
celebrities coming this year versus last year. So in one
of the things we did is removed the festival from
August until June because we wanted to have active NFL players.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
If you remember last year we did in August.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
The problem with that was all the NFL guys were
already in pre season. This year, in the NFL, we've
got I think a third and a half of the
starting NFL quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Got Jaden Daniels, c J.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Strode, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, Joe Burrow. I know, we've
got guys like Michael Parsons, DeVante Adams, CD Lamb.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Justin Jefferson.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I mean, there's so many, and I think there's fifty
current NFL stars there. In basketball, you got Bron Wemby,
kd Kat, James Harden and the amount of people even
hitting me saying hey, Rube, like I want to come.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It's just like you got room for me. So everyone's
been hitting me all weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
By we got Kevin Hart coming, Jay Z, Travis Scott.
I mean, I remember last year Jay looked at me,
He's like we were in the forty forty and he
looked at me.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
He said, this is the most incredible thing, Like Traff.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Took over and he's now the house DJ at forty forty,
Like this is the most insane thing in the world.
And by the way, trafvor at the time of his life.
It's like everyone's coming back and so many more people.
And one of the things you know about me, I
love getting people together. And it's great to see so
many great people getting together and so many great things
that come from that. So you know, that's you know,
there are a lot of things I suck up at.
(11:03):
One of the things, I'm not bad. It's just bringing
breef people together and letting great outcomes come from that.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So I think we're gonna see a lot of that an.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
AX Best issue too, And the content is amazing, Like
if you just look day by day, hour by hour,
what are all the different things I can do? There's
so much to do, but you know talent, I mean,
it's you're just gonna see people walking back and forth
through the aisle.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It's like crazy because there's so much to do. You know.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I'm also here in the prize pool. There's a prize
pool that's gonna take place, that's gonna include about two
million in total cash and prizes.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Is that true? Two million in total catch and prizes?
It is true.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And the funny thing is I just have been thanking
people for coming right before I jumped on here, and
the last person I hit was Eli Manning, and I
guess he didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
So we're doing the Fanatics games.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
And what the Fanatics games are, We're doing eight different
athletic competitions.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
You take your best six scores, you drop your worse too.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
So it's things like football throwing accuracy, Baseball pitching accuracy,
ww walk out you have ce punching accuracy accuracy. So anyway, again,
you take your best six scores, you drop me worse two.
So and we pair people in groups of two or
three to go through the different games, kind of like God,
you're competing on your own, but we still pair people,
and just for sport, we decide to pair.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Originally, Kalid called me. He's like, Yo, do you see
my run? Man? I'm so fast, he said, I want
Brady in the games. He said, Brady may be able
to beat me football, but I'll beast. I said. He
was fast, reallytic, It's.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Amazing what you can do with AI these days. So
so Khalid called me. He said, I want to take
on Brady. So he's talking a lot of smack, talking
a lot of smacks. So Khaled said, I could beat
him in basketball, I could beat him in baseball, I
could beat him.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
In WW walkout.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So originally I called Brady and Brady said that may
have better have an ambulance to follow him around like that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
That was his response. Then I realized we're missing something.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
How do we not have Tommy and Eli going up
against each other? So now we got a little threesome
guarding off Tommy, Eli and Kalich. So there's gonna be
a lot of shit talk during that. During that little
uh threesome going down.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
It's gonna be hilarious.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It's gonna be hilaric because DJ Kylla can't play no
damn basketball. Now golf might be a different matter, but
he can't play any damn basketball. I already saw him
do that. He needs to stop that Dons sense, by
the way, before I let's get on out of here.
I got a couple of things. Number One, I gotta
produce some mine. His brother is gonna be competing in
some event.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
He's one of the fifty fans that got picked.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
And by the way, we're root we're rooting for your guys, brother,
because you know it, if we can have an incredibly
athletic don professional athlete win this, that's the best of
the wall.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
A lot of our common friends are talking a lot
of smack called me, say, yo, I'm taking that bag
of a million dollars home.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yo, I'm driving that five hundred thousandsf Ferrari out of there. Yo.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I'm taking that two thousand and three tops Lebron James
rookie card. This what quarter million dollars, I'm taking that home.
So I'm rooting for your guys brother.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I want him to win. I want the average fando wins.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
And we try to cast this right, make sure there's
some good competition, so that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And we may needs use.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Steven A to come commuentate, give a little bit of
you know, when we got brading, Eli and Kali going down,
you may need to jump in there and just do
ten minutes of comedy because watching those guys.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Go competing, yeae, that's you trying to add more work.
That's not trying to add more work to me, Michael,
you know you're trying to add more work to me.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
You do anything, so you know you coming in and
be able to make fun of college.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I'm getting a little eli tellmy competition go, we need
you man now.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I will say this though, I mean, I understand it's
not your fault. You know, I'm gonna leave it alone,
you know, because I know people get a little sensitive
if I'm around because I'm in the media and stuff
like that. But I do get a little jealous when
I see other people at the White Party. I'm not
gonna front because it's.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Other people in the media.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I'm like this, I would look better than them rocking
all white. I've rocked my all white outfits from time
to time. I would like something like that, but I'm not.
I couldna be mad about it because I'm coming to fanatics, pest,
But I just want you to know me at.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
The right.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
I was honored to just send you the shoes that
only came to the people for the White Party. Even
though there could be some white people the White Party
you may have been a little critical of over the years,
maybe like quarter of the White Party, you.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Know, But and you're just doing your job. You doing
what you do. But I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Make sure you have their shoes because their shoes are specials.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Anything. That's where no one could say shit.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
You gotta be there, and you gotta be you, and
I love you being you because you're the best.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I'm gonna be there, man, and I'm looking forward to it.
The one and only Michael Ruber for Fanatics. Fanatics Fest
second Edition. Oh it's gonna be specially y'all. Javitson in
New York City is big time, no doubt. Over seventy
over one hundred thousand people showing up. I can't wait
to be there. I look forward to seeing you Friday.
My man can't and my brother love you, man, great senior,
all right, same, I love you too, man, One and
(15:56):
only Michael Ruber right here. Fanatics Fests NYC twenty twenty
five takes place June twentieth through the twenty second at
the Jacob Javid Convention Center in.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
New York City.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
For ticket information, go to Fanaticsfest dot com. That's it
for this special edition to the Stephen A.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Smith Show.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I'll be back with you in a couple of days,
if not tomorrow, You never know.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
With me.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
There's a lot to talk about, and I'll be around
to do just that. Until then, This is stephen A
signing off, thanks again to the one and only Michael
Rubin Fanatics Fests this weekend. Check it out Javitt Jacob
Javid Center in New York City. It's a must attend event,
make no mistake about it, and a whole bunch of
people are gonna be there, just like Michael Rubin told you.
Don't miss it, y'all. Until next time, it's a stephen
(16:47):
A signing off. Peace of love, be safe, cou bless
Host
Stephen A. Smith
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