Michael Rubin’s White Party, & How Stars Like LeBron James & Kevin Durant Give Fanatics Fest Power.mp4

We are at the home of the White Party with the one and only Michael Rubin. We both survived. Two days later, they're still breaking this down, I see, outside. It was a fun one. Let's give the White Party a grade. I'm going to give it a straight A+. I prepped as if I was playing in a Game 7. I got an IV. I'm sure you got an IV. I might have got one in advance, which we posted on Instagram. What's up, and welcome to a special Boardroom Talks, live from the Hamptons. Michael, what's up, buddy? Always good to be with you, my brother. A few days after the White Party, we recovered. We're feeling good, well-nourished. I'm excited to get my house back. I'm excited to have no drinking in my schedule for a long time, and it was a fun one. I've been to all of them, and each one has been incredible, but there was something different this year. I think it was great. Look, for me, I love bringing people together. And the White Party does that. It brings people from all different backgrounds, all different types of people. And people just come together. They let loose. They learn. They grow. They find business deals. It's just super fun. It's a marathon party, as you know. It starts at 5.30, ends at 5.30 in the morning, 12-hour party. I think you and I made it to... Both of us made it to about 4 a.m. I was proud of my performance. I didn't quite get to sun up as I had advertised, but I'm still proud of my performance. It's wild, because I prepped as if I was playing in a Game 7. And when you start coming into this house, you realize you're about to commit 12 hours of your time. It's a lot, but it was a complete success. And I will tell you about business deals taking place. This was the most transactional I was in the best way. The ability to be around so many people in one room and be able to talk about what you're doing. And people want to be together. It feels like all the attitude is left at the door. There's no bullshit. Everybody embraces everybody. And that clearly is a testament to you. Look, the thing that makes the White Party so special, but also makes it so difficult, is we work on the curation so hard to make sure that we have a small group together. It's only 380 people. And you have thousands of people that you like, that you want to say yes to, that you just can't say yes to. Otherwise, you don't have enough room in the house. And you make the party just not as intimate as you need to be. But the great thing about that is that so many good things come from it. And so many relationships are formed, deals are created. And I love that. It's fun the day after seeing all the notes and people saying just how much fun they had, how many great things came of it. And again, most importantly, we both survived. We both survived. So most people would probably take it easy for a little bit, maybe hit a boat in San Jose. You were probably working all day the next day and now have to gather over 100,000 people for the third annual Fanatics Fest. I want to talk specifically now about Fanatics Fest. This is the third year from original concept till now. Is this gone exactly how have you imagined? Or has there been a pivot or an evolution that you've started to make from year one till now? Look, anyone who tells you they know when they start a business exactly how it's going to go is full of ----. I walked into the Comic-Con and said, why don't we have this for sports fans? I said, we're going to start a sports version of this. And it's gone, I think, in a lot of ways, bigger and better than we could have ever imagined. But the thing is, no other company other than Fanatics would have had the relationships with all the different sports properties and all the different athletes necessary to really bring this whole thing together. So it's exciting. I think we think we'll have close to 200,000 people over a four-day period at Javits January 16th through the 19th. You know, I've been going through the content. I'll tell you, it's the first time I've ever, in a lot of ways, I'm like, wow, this is so cool. I mean, look at Gameplan and what we're doing together. And you have LeBron James there and KD and Adam Silver and Jimmy Pataro and, you know, me being the worst guest you have there. You know, it's like, it's so awesome. And that's just like an example of what you can do when we can bring everyone together. And whether it's the White Party, where we bring, you know, a super intimate group together in the Hamptons, or whether it's Fanatics Festival, where we bring nearly 200,000 sports fans together and the best athletes, stars, celebrities in the world. You know, it's something we like to do is really convene people. And, you know, I couldn't be more excited about this year being the third year. Also, we timed this around the World Cup final. And having the World Cup final in New York and Fanatics Fest, July 16th through the 19th, it couldn't be better set up. One of the things I'm most excited for at Fanatics Fest is the World Cup press conference. So those real global football fans, they know that normally takes place in the stadium where the final is. Instead, they took that for the first time in the history of FIFA and the World Cup. They moved it to Fanatics Fest. You're going to have both team captains and coaches at Fanatics Fest in front of tens of thousands of fans. So if you think about this, on Friday, July 17th, if it were a repeat of 22, which it certainly looks like it could be, if France were playing Argentina, you'd have Messi and Mbappe at Fanatics Fest with tens of thousands of fans. And that is so exciting. And I look at the agenda and content that we have. Over four days, we have so many incredible things happening. How do you get FIFA and the World Cup to change a tradition like that? To bring this to Fanatics Fest? For you, obviously, the relationships are there, but what's the conversation and the sell for that? I'd say we're all about innovating for the fan, okay? How do we do things that are better for the fan? I'll ask you a question. Tradition is tradition, but is a press conference better at MetLife, not in front of fans, or is it better in front of tens of thousands of rabid sports fans? And for me, it was the easiest sell in the world because once we had the idea, they knew this would be great. And we couldn't be more excited to execute it. So I think we're always trying to figure out how we can do things different, better. And by the way, there's lots of things we do better and lots of things we need to keep working on to be better. So you moved it this year to July. You will do this from now on in June, right? Yeah, it'll be the weekend after Father's Day each year going forward. The only reason we did it July 16th through the 19th this year is because of the World Cup final because we want to bring this around the World Cup, have the FIFA press conference at Fanatics Fest. The regular time going forward will be the weekend after Father's Day. So NBA and NFL, it's easy for them to be there. It's in the middle of Major League Baseball season. Talk about what you were able to align up with Rob and MLB. Well, look, I'd say Fanatics Fest is really becoming Sports Week in New York City, as you know. And I think not only do you have this incredible festival, you have the ESPYs that move to go Wednesday night before Fanatics Fest because there's so much talent coming to Fanatics Fest. You have Time 100 and what they're doing with sports. You have Boardroom Moving Game playing two Fanatics Fests. You have the Dodgers playing the Yankees in New York City. Incredible. You have WWE putting on a big fight at MSG. So I think everyone's saying, look, you have 200,000 of the best sports fans in the world coming to Fanatics Fest. Let's really build this as Sports Week and everyone gathered around us. You know, we're humbled to be in the middle of that. So WWE is doing a fight Saturday night? Yes. So ESPYs, MLB All-Star Weekend, our conference, Fanatics Fest, WWE. It has truly become the epicenter of sports. This almost like gathering of the entire world in this one week. When you look at it from a business standpoint, for me, right, with a conference, I was always told early on to look at year three or four as when I could potentially turn a profit. I'm seeing that potentially coming true this year in year four. Is this something that you even think about from a making money standpoint or is it not? No. I mean, look, between ourselves and our partners, it'll cost $80 to $90 million to produce this this year. You know, this is where you give back to fans. It's something that just fans love. It's the way Fanatics can show up in its best ways. Our partners can show up in the best way. And by the way, the athletes, celebrities, and artists, I mean, take a look. You're a basketball guy, first and foremost. You got KD there, LeBron James, James Harden, Anthony Edwards, you know, SGA, Trey Young, Chet Holbrook. You've got Victor Mignogna, Cooper Flagg. The athletes love to come for one of the few times that they can do it. Really spend quality time with the fans. And, you know, for me to be able to organize bringing this all together, it's so fun. There's so many, you know, great things that happen for everybody involved in Fanatics Fest. So you talked about between you and your partners. So when a league looks at Fanatics Fest, they go into it in the same way, right? They see this as a cost and a marketing opportunity. Yeah, they see this as a way to connect with super fans and it's exactly what it is. And so, you know, look, I don't think anyone else could do this other than Fanatics. We work with all these different sports properties, teams, athletes, celebrities. So it makes it easy for us to kind of, you know, bring this all together. But also, you know, one of the things I see, it's kind of amazing, like, you look at the schedules of each person coming, you see how much people love doing things with it. I mean, I love to see the way you talk about this. KD, he loves doing Fanatics Fest because he wants to engage with his fans. And how many great moments has he had each of the two years he's been there? Because he doesn't start Fanatics Fest. You were one of the first calls we made when we had this idea and, of course, you and KD said, Brian, let's go, let's blow this out. Always, yeah. Yeah, it's amazing. And I could speak from experience. This isn't very Kevin to commit to something like this every year where he's not getting paid, but the return and the value that he feels. And like you said, just the ROI on being around fans and getting that love is incredible. And now you've created this platform for other people to build business off of, right? That's right. A lot of our partners find different ways to really benefit from Fanatics Fest. So you moving Gameplan from Los Angeles to Fanatics Fest made Gameplan so much better. So much better. Okay, you can look at KD's, the balance of his marketing partners, say, oh, I can do this with that marketing partner. And so many of our athletes, celebrities, artists, they work with their different key partners to activate around Fanatics Fest. I mean, like I know, I'm just thinking about Ants doing something with Adidas for his shoe launch. Harden is doing something with Adidas. Other people will be doing things with Nike. So it's great that you can show up for your fans in a big way and get back to the fans, but also find ways to work with the partners that are important to you. Who can get on the floor? Like, how does that work in terms of leagues and brands? Is it just like you have to have a relationship with Fanatics? Yeah, I mean, look, we use the entire bunch. It's 1.1 million square feet. There's not an inch left of space. I mean, we kind of work with the partners that are most important to us. And most people are there. I mean, you've got all the big sports properties there. But like, we also make a top level, like right now it's the World Cup. So FIFA's got a space much bigger. They had a great space last year. The space is going to be exponentially bigger this year because you want to make sure that you're doing things to activate the partners that are most on brand at the right time. And by the way, the World Cup's been amazing. How much fun have you had? I can't wait to keep enjoying kind of all the World Cup excitement. Have the league started in your mind to like see every year, wait, we need to make a bigger investment. We need a bigger footprint. We need to steal the show here. Because in a lot of ways you are creating, it's almost like Burning Man like you have to create this spectacle to get attention on the floor of Javits Center. Each sports property wants to show up in the best possible way. And I think there's a lot of creativity goes into what they're doing. Yeah. And so, yes, I think the same way that we walk away each year and say, okay, don't tell us all the things that went well. Tell us what we didn't get right so we can make it better. I think the leagues look and say, how do I innovate? How do I break the internet moments? What can we do to be better than anybody else? And I think that shows up in the content schedules. We have six different stages during the four days with incredible content. Like if you're a sports fan, if you're a real sports fan, you go there open to close four days in a row and just be so excited about what happens. Yeah. And what about sponsors? How do you guys look at relationships with sponsors and how are sponsors trying to show up and separate themselves a bit? Yeah. So we do work with a handful, probably 15 or 20 key sponsors that generally have broader partnerships with fanatics. And they show up here in a way that's, you know, I think super accretive to their brand, but also very sports, right? So maybe it's Activision that's coming this year and they want to do something, you know, with one of their games and the athletes that are at fanatics faster. You know, maybe it's American Express who's a core partner of fanatics and how they want to show up and give a better card member experience. So every brand wants to show up in a way that's going to be real, you know, I'd say brand creative for themselves. And has sponsorship revenue just increased year over year? It has, which means, you know, it's gone from being a financial arbitrage for fanatics to kind of being a new choice things, you know, like, but we don't look at this. It's so small in the scheme of things. This is all about how do we do something that no other company could do and do this great thing, get back to just create so many moments for me. Yeah. So you listed all those players before, but when I looked at the entire list, there's players that played in the 80s and the 90s. Those guys that are coming to fanatics fest, is it the same thing for them? Or is there a way for these guys to make money? Are there signings that take place downstairs? Yeah, there's a big business in autos and signings, both public and private, where all the athletes get paid for that. So that's a real revenue source for them. I'd say, you know, I'm doing this off the top of my head, but I bet you, you know, we'll spend $10 million with hundreds of, you know, amongst hundreds of players that they get paid for doing either private signing, public signing, public photos. And most of that money, you know, goes to the players. And so that's a way for them to make money. We try to make this, like we want this to be a win-win relationship. And everyone's different. You know, KD may say, hey, I just want to activate with my fans because I love what I'm doing with game plan. I love what I'm doing with fanatics fest. And guess what? I'm not the type of guy to do public photos about my game. Somebody else may say, hey, I'm into it. And I can make, you know, a few hundred thousand dollars from this or tens of thousands of dollars. It's really, we try to design this, you know, something really specific to each athlete. We do that 400 times over. It's amazing too, because you really are super serving fans of all ages. I don't think there's anything else like this because there are players that are walking around that kids have no idea who they are. And I walk around and go, this is a f***ing legend from when I was growing up. You know, that really proved itself out last year when a guy in his nineties grabbed me and says, Mr. Rubin, which by the way, the only thing I'm like is people call me Mr. Rubin. I'm like, Michael, sir. You know, I'm really nice to meet you. I just want you to know, this has been one of the best moments of my life. I'm here with my son, grandson and great grandson. Incredible. And he said, you've enabled that to happen for me. And honestly, it made me realize why we work so hard to pull this together. So is this a mainstay at Javits Center now, year over year? We're going to do this forever. And is it something that can move and be in other cities? You know, I told the CEO of Javits, who I like a lot, I told the governor, Kathy Hochberg, who, you know, has been quite good to us. This is New York's Toulouse. You know, we have right now, we've had some of the prime ministers and leaders of the biggest countries in the world offer us hundreds of millions of dollars to pull this out of New York and move this to their country. We've had governors of, you know, many of the big states, you know, in America call us and say, what do we need to get access? The truth be told, it's so hard to do this. I want to do this once a year. And so long as New York treats us great, I want to keep this in New York permanently. So this is a once a year thing. It's a once a year thing. We don't want to do it more. We want to make this around sports week in New York. And look, so long as we have the dates we want, the building is great to work with. New York is super accommodating. We're going to keep this as a New York special. So that Wednesday, like you talked about, is the ESPYs. That's moving to New York, which I told Jimmy the other night, makes all the sense in the world and should always be in New York. But of course, because you're never okay with having your hands full, they need to be really full. You and your partner, Michael Radner, also partnered with Conor Schell to produce the ESPYs this year. What can we look for different? And it's at Lincoln Center, right? Yeah, look, I mean, Conor Schell and ESPN has done a great job with ESPYs. I think what you get when you partner with Fanatic Studios is hopefully we're going to bring some more innovative ideas. Then we'll also work with some of the talent to help get you just more interested. So I think, you know, we both want to innovate and definitely help to draw Fanatics Fest. All right. So the ESPYs, Fanatics, just came off of the White Party. Any time to relax this summer, brother? I'm actually taking 10 days in August. I've never done this before. I'm going to go to Europe. I've done one week trips. I've never done 10 days. I'm excited to do it. And that's going to be a lot of fun. So only like eight hours or calls those days? Yeah, exactly. All right, amazing. All right, Fanatics Fest in New York City, July 16, 17, 18, 19. Amazing idea to bring Game Plan there. I appreciate it. Go to Boardroom, download, subscribe. You can still get tickets to Fanatics Fest. You can still get tickets to Game Plan. Michael, go back to work, brother. I love you. Appreciate it, brother.