Rovell: "NFLPA Cancels Panini Deal, Giving Fanatics Exclusive Rights 3 Years Early"

[Deadshot]

This probably goes in the football forum, but it's going to turn into a bigger hobby story before all is said and done.

https://www.actionnetwork.com/nfl/nflpa ... ears-early

[dengbang]

I don't think anyone outside of their circle expected this to happen so soon. My question is what will happen to open redemptions and replacements.

[mindcycle]

I wonder if they either breached their contract or didn’t/couldn’t pay. It’ll be interesting to hear the specifics assuming this is true.

[FrankAZHP]

This is wild.

I'm excited and scared.

Excited because 98% of my collection is Topps, and I'll be happy to get Chrome/Heritage/Archives back, but scared because I don't know if Fanatics will be a better or worse monopoly than Panini was.


also lol @ everyone who made fun of me collecting Topps cards and boycotting Panini football cards. If I cared about monetary "value" this would matter more, but I think the values of Topps football cards are going to have a much higher premium now. Good for me for what I already have, bad for me for buying more of it.

[mindcycle]

*NOTE: I think they meant to to write "Tuesday" morning here..

Via.. https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/news ... -cards-nfl

[threepointplay]

In my mind it is only a matter of time before we see similar moves in respect of the NFL, NBA & NBPA. They after all are equity shareholders in Fanatics Trading card company, that Panini decided to sue!

Every large corporation has a ‘strategy’ department/division, that is responsible for looking at the medium / long term future of the company. They will report to the senior executive / board of directors and be constantly producing files / plans on strategic options. That department will also be responsible for overseeing any 'strategic investments' aka shareholdings that their company has taken in other corporations.

The executives within these strategy departments will be constantly talking with their peers at fellow shareholders and with senior exec’s at the corporations where they have holdings. If only so they can ensure that they have as much information as possible about their investments & can advise their senior executives/board of directors accordingly. Whilst the leagues & players associations are competing organisations most of the time, they will not bat an eyelid in working together if they felt that their interests are aligned.

As we have learned from the content of the recent lawsuits, there was an expectation that Fanatics would take over the licenses well before the existing agreements ended in 2025/2026 and they all started down the negotiation path to make that happen. With Panini not playing ball, they clearly feel that there is now enough in their current agreements to unilaterally terminate them.

Panini has been staring down the barrel of a gun for a while and league/players stakeholders have decided that they are not interested in leaving the increased revenue they are expecting to earn from the Fanatics agreement for another two or three years.

[MittenStateCollector]

Has anyone seen a stated reason for why the NFLPA is leaving early?

My general belief has been that Fanatics tried to get Panini to sell out early so they could take over the licenses now, and when Panini didn't give favorable terms, Fanatics started trying to undermine them at every turn to put financial pressure on them to sell. Guessing all this ends in a settlement that will be most favorable to Panini only if they hand over licenses to Fanatics as part of that settlement.

[mindcycle]

Has anyone seen a stated reason for why the NFLPA is leaving early?

My general belief has been that Fanatics tried to get Panini to sell out early so they could take over the licenses now, and when Panini didn't give favorable terms, Fanatics started trying to undermine them at every turn to put financial pressure on them to sell. Guessing all this ends in a settlement that will be most favorable to Panini only if they hand over licenses to Fanatics as part of that settlement.

Yeah that’s exactly what Fanatics has been doing. As for why NFLPA dropped Panini I don’t think anyone has come out with that info yet. My guess would be that they breeched the contract, but whether that’s due to not paying the bill or some other contractual breech it’s still up for debate until we get clarification.

[AbraCalabro]

I've got nothing but negative feelings toward the landscape that Fanatics is envisioning for the sports card hobby, especially reading through this thread. If they're so greedy and money hungry that they're pulling stuff like this, I have to think this is an indicator of gambling and lottery-like racket they're going to institute. For over a decade now, the general feeling I've had is that these companies are catering to and more interested in big spenders and sensationalism over genuine hobby enthusiasts and actually enriching the hobby.

Let's be serious here, when the talking heads make their feel good statements using the terms hobby and collectors, these are euphemisms for investors/flippers and the market respectively. Fanatics is no different in this context, it's all about greed, hyping you up so they can sell you on some crap for high dollar.

Any way you look at it, monopolies = bad.

This problem stems directly from each of the major league sports and they couldn't care any less about a hobby, all they care about is how can we make the most money in the fastest, easiest, cheapest way while cutting every corner we can?

[mindcycle]

Haven’t fact checked this, but here you go..

[AbraCalabro]

Everything is money-centric now, you've all seen how the wealth hogs up the cards while jacking up prices, now you see it happening very obviously with the corporate end. Greed has killed the hobby and will continue to beat a dead horse.