Newly crowned captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews is one of many celebrities participating in the first ever Fanatics Fest NYC.
This event will have numerous high-profile athletes who will be available to sign autographs and take photos. It's run by the multibillion-dollar global sports distributor Fanatics who is also an NHL partner.
"It's really, truly an immersive sports festival," said Lance Fensterman, the chief executive officer of Fanatics Events.
Matthews was part of the opening of the festival as he was there for Friday to be the face of the Maple Leafs. Other A-list athletes who were present included former Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, Mike Richter, Matt Rempe and Tie Domi.
The athletes will also participate in interactive events with kids which include Q&A sessions, and other panel discussions.
"In sports, nothing like this exists," Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin said on "CBS Mornings" on Monday. "When I went to Comic Con I'm like, 'We need this for sports.' That's when we said we're going to build it, we're going to bring everybody out, and we've got this coming weekend 200 of the best athletes, artists, celebrities in the world coming together to launch fanatics fest at Javits."
With his new captaincy of the Maple Leafs, Matthews will likely be doing many of these events for the remainder of his career and well after his retirement from the NHL. Having donned the captain's jersey many Maple Leafs fans are looking forward to seeing how the team will run under his leadership and whether any changes are coming to the leadership group prior to puck drop in October.
The event is ongoing since Friday August 16th and will conclude on Sunday August 18th which is taking place at the Javits Center.
