The Taylor Swift Effect: Chiefs Ticket Demand Explained
The world is in the midst of witnessing a collision between sports and music on a scale that has rarely been seen before. It’s all due to the budding relationship between star tight end Travis Kelce and iconic singer Taylor Swift. Swift has recently made it a habit of showing up at Kansas City Chiefs games to support Kelce, creating quite a stir in the process. Her mere presence in the stadium has helped to cause the demand for Chiefs tickets to increase even more than usual. Let’s take a closer look at the Swift effect and explain the sudden demand for tickets.
More Than a Celebrity
The NFL is obviously no stranger to its players being involved in high-profile, celebrity relationships. For instance, Russell Wilson is married to singer and model Ciara, while Josh Allen has a relatively new relationship with actress Hailee Steinfeld. Those are just two of the many examples in which NFL players have been romantically involved with high-profile celebrities. However, Taylor Swift isn’t just another celebrity; she’s one of the biggest stars on the planet right now.
Swift’s Eras Tour, which sent her to several NFL stadiums, is proof of just how big of a star she is. While not yet over, the Eras Tour is expected to gross over $2 billion when all is said and done. To be fair, the NFL and its 32 teams grossed $18.6 billion in 2022. But that amounts to just over half a billion per team, whereas one person on tour brought in over $2 billion. For comparison, the average ticket to the Eras Tour sold for around $1,600. Outside of the Super Bowl, there aren’t many NFL games with an average ticket price anywhere close to that amount. Keep in mind that’s across more than 100 Swift concerts on the Eras Tour, so it’s not a small sample size.
In fact, the demand for tickets to the Eras Tour caused TicketMaster’s website to crash. Nothing similar has ever happened for an NFL game, even the Super Bowl. Likewise, combining the Instagram followers of every NFL team wouldn’t even come close to matching Swift’s 275 million Instagram followers. The bottom line is that Swift’s level of celebrity is on another level, even compared to the NFL, which explains why the world has gone wild with Swift suddenly attending NFL games and why this is uncharted territory for the league.
In the Building
Given the huge demand for Swift’s concert tickets and the prices her fans were willing to pay to see her perform, it’s not surprising that so many people would be willing to pay more just to be in the same NFL stadium as her, even if she’s just watching the game like everyone else. It doesn’t hurt that Swift has brought other celebrities like Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds with her to NFL games. But her mere presence within a stadium is enough to make fans of her and fans of the NFL want to be in the same place at the same time.
This explains the immediate response from fans attending Kansas City’s game against the Jets, just one week after Swift made her first appearance at Arrowhead Stadium in support of Kelce. As soon as it was reported that Swift would be at MetLife Stadium for that game, ticket prices on the secondary market nearly doubled.
Likewise, the Chiefs-Jets game became the most-watched NFL game that week, with roughly 24 million viewers. Despite the level of interest in the Jets fading after the injury to Aaron Rodgers in Week 1, Swift’s presence changed all of that. With the potential of Swift continuing to show up to support Kelce, especially when the Chiefs are at home, Kansas City’s future games this season have seen a similar bump in demand and price on the secondary market.
Steering Into the Skid
For what it’s worth, the NFL isn’t exactly hurting when it comes to ticket sales or viewers. However, the league has quickly recognized the value of Swift being associated with the league. While there is some pre-existing overlap between Swift fans and NFL fans, there is plenty of room for that overlap to grow, allowing the NFL to expand its fanbase even further despite already being the most popular league in the country.
As a result, the NFL is clearly steering into the skid with regard to Swift and Kelce. They have not been shy about trying to get her on camera every time Kelce is involved in a play. Doing so gives the NFL’s new audience exactly what it wants while simultaneously seeing what else the league has to offer from an entertainment standpoint. While it may not be the most natural fit, early returns already indicate that the NFL is drawing in more females aged 12-49 thanks to Swift’s presence.
Looking Ahead
There is no indication or reason for the NFL not to continue to take advantage of the Taylor Swift effect as much as possible. Things are certainly working out for Kelce, who has seen his podcast increase in popularity and his jersey sales rise roughly 400% thanks to his association with Swift. The NFL also has a chance to market itself to tens of millions of potential new fans. It may not be the most conventional fit or make sense to longtime NFL fans. However, as long as viewership and the demand for tickets are on the rise, the relationship between Swift and the NFL is bound to continue.