Sports Illustrated and Medium Rare continue events push with latest Super Bowl event
Published 1 day ago • 3 min read
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SI The Party Presented by DraftKings set for Super Bowl LX
An image from the 2025 version of SI The Party. (Medium Rare.)
Sports Illustrated has undergone a lot of changes since magazine company Meredith's 2018 acquisition of their then-parent company Time Inc. and subsequent 2019 sale of SI to Authentic. Not all of those have been positive; indeed, the licensing of SI publication rights to theMaven/Maven/Arena Group collapsed spectacularly in early 2024. But the subsequent shift to license those rights to Minute Media seems to have worked out well, and the publishing side looks to be in decent shape at the moment (and is even drawing attention for solid sports-based rather than attention-seeking editorial decisions, such as the recent choice of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as Sportsperson of the Year).
Throughout Authentic's ownership tenure, the company has found interesting ways to leverage SI's brand. Events are a particularly notable element of this, and one that makes a lot of sense, especially when it comes to connecting with both athletes and fans who resonate with the SI brand. One of those flagship events has been SI The Party (in conjunction with Medium Rare) on Super Bowl Weekend, and SI announced Wednesday that this event will return for Super Bowl LX as SI The Party Presented by DraftKings, to be held at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Here are more details from a release:
Sports Illustrated is thrilled to announce the return of SI The Party Presented by DraftKings during Big Game Weekend 2026, taking over the historic Cow Palace in San Francisco on Saturday, February 7, 2026. Produced by Authentic Live & Medium Rare, the event is widely recognized as one of the weekend’s marquee celebrations - where league owners, franchise executives, athletes and Hollywood’s biggest names gather under one roof - SI The Party has become the destination where fans and VIPs come to expect a premium Big Game experience outside of the game itself. Premium all-inclusive tickets, VIP access and VIP Tables will go on sale Thursday, January 8, at 10 a.m. PT, with fans invited to pre-register now at sitheparty.com for first access.
...From the beginning, SI The Party has been an extension of Sports Illustrated’s legacy at the intersection of sports, entertainment and culture, offering guests the chance to experience Big Game Weekend the way they have always seen it on the most iconic SI covers and pages. Over the years, that has meant welcoming a who’s who of league owners, all stars and global icons from the worlds of sports, entertainment and tech, including everyone from Jeff Bezos and Leonardo DiCaprio to Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Alex Rodriguez and Patrick Mahomes.
“Across Big Game Weekend and other tentpole moments on the world’s biggest sporting stages, our vision with SI The Party has always been to deliver hospitality that feels intimate and insider, even at the largest events in the world, creating the most unforgettable night of Big Game Weekend where the energy and star power of sports truly comes to life off the field,” said Matt Goldstein, EVP of Authentic Live, the live events division of Authentic and co-producer of the event.
I attended SI The Party last year as part of my research for a feature on Medium Rare (which is really a fascinating events company, and one that has become one of the biggest players around Super Bowl Week), and it stood out amongst that company's many cool events as one particularly focused on connecting with top athletes. As Medium Rare's Adam Richman told me ahead of the event, "The amount of heritage and legacy that the brand has and always will have really lends itself well to the athletes that want to attend and grew up reading Sports Illustrated and loving Sports Illustrated and maybe had their first article or covering event in Sports Illustrated. So I think it’s really near and dear to them, and because of that, it just creates so much interest and buzz." And that was seen on the red carpet during welcomes last year, with countless athletes and celebrities seemingly thrilled to be there, and with NASCAR driver Joey Logano telling me “I remember when I was young, growing up, Sports Illustrated For Kids wrote an article on me...I just thought that, I mean, as a kid, you were in Sports Illustrated,it was the coolest thing in the world. I always remember that.”
Thus, SI The Party's a valuable way for the brand to stay connected to athletes. But it also connects them to fans, and lets them connect fans to athletes. Unlike many of the star-studded Super Bowl parties, this one can actually be attended by the public, putting fans in proximity to many amazing athletes. And there are a lot of cool individual things set for this party, from headlining performances from The Chainsmokers, Ludacris, DJ Irie, and Xandra to sponsor activations from DraftKings (a special lounge), Lexus, Anheuser-Busch, and more, including Shaquille O'Neal's Shaq-A-Licious XL Gummies (perhaps even with the new Shaq-A-Licious SLAMS, also announced Wednesday). It's a neat event, and one that speaks to what SI's brand can still bring to the table for both athletes and fans.
