Taylor Swift and NFL player’s alleged relationship increases season ticket sales

The “Swift effect” will be in full effect when the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs travel to New York on Sunday, as an alleged relationship between music phenomenon Taylor Swift and player Travis Kelce has sent fans into a frenzy. .

Rumors about the relationship mark a collision between two of the most powerful forces in North American pop culture: the giant Swift, in the middle of her Eras Tour, and the NFL, the American football league in the United States.

The relationship seemed all but confirmed when Swift appeared in Kelce’s box at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, where she cheered wildly when the athlete caught a touchdown pass in the Chiefs’ 41-10 victory over the Chicago Bears.

Her appearance set social media on fire, with fans dissecting all of Swift’s behavior, from her banter with Kelce’s mom, Donna, to the sauces she paired with a mid-game chicken snack. The game’s television broadcast even replayed Swift’s celebrations in slow motion.

Fans are now hoping they can say “Welcome to New York” — or rather, East Rutherford, New Jersey — when the Chiefs face the host New York Jets, as Swift is rumored to be making another appearance.

“She has been the master of the events industry for the past year and continues to be as her tour continues,” Adam Budelli, a spokesman for ticket resale platform StubHub, told Reuters.

“Along with the NFL, which we all know is generating the highest TV ratings and interest across the entire sports landscape… I don’t want to call it a marriage, but it’s clearly a perfect match for the short term, both from a point of view. from the perspective of the media and the history of ticket sales.”

Since Swift’s appearance in Kansas City, ticket sales for the Jets’ game against the Chiefs have soared, with single-day sales more than doubling this season’s previous record, with the exception of the team’s opening game of according to StubHub.

Swift’s appearance also preceded a nearly threefold increase in sales in a 24-hour window for Chiefs home games on StubHub.

“Taylor Swift’s presence at NFL games is gold dust for the league,” said Tom Scott, chief executive of Trippant, a communications consultancy that has worked with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Sports merchandise retailer Fanatics, the official e-commerce partner of the NFL, said there was a nearly 400% increase in sales of Travis Kelce jerseys on its sites, including NFLShop.com, on Sunday, putting it among the top five best-selling shirts in the league.

The player also saw his followers on social media grow by 300 thousand.

“I brought all this attention to myself,” Kelce said on his podcast, which topped the Apple charts this week. “What’s real is that this is my personal life and I want to respect both of their lives.”