Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce.
The first series of American football, the NFL, is the world’s most valuable sports series. In 2022, its combined revenues were around 17.2 billion euros. The NFL is in a class of its own, because the second in the statistics is the basketball NBA, with 10 billion euros.
In 2022, 82 of the 100 most watched TV broadcasts in the US were NFL broadcasts. The gap between the NFL and the rest of televised sports has only grown in the US.
Travis Kelce, 34, is one of the best inside linebackers of all time. He has represented his entire NFL career, starting in 2014 with the Kansas City Chiefs, breaking several statistical records for his position and winning the Super Bowl twice.
When the music service Spotify published its annual charts at the end of November, Taylor Swift shone as the number one in the world’s top charts. In October, Swift became a billionaire at the age of 33. It is about a pop music phenomenon, the likes of which had not been seen in this millennium.
Swift’s sixth concert tour, The Eras Tour, is the most significant pop cultural phenomenon of the year. The Eras Tour, which ends in November 2024, will be the most profitable concert tour in history. The revenue is estimated at 1.4 billion dollars, which is half a billion more than the current record holder, Sir Elton John’s farewell tour.
Recently, Time magazine chose Swift’s Person of the Year. For more than a hundred years, Time has chosen the person or actor who has had the greatest impact on the world during the past year. The magazine justified its choice with, among other things, Swift’s enormous cultural and commercial importance and her open positions on women’s rights.
Read also: Taylor Swift is a millennial phenomenon who can even influence the US presidential election if she wants to
This fall, these two huge entertainment phenomena, the two biggest in the United States, united in a revolutionary way.
The first rumors – soon the going was wild
Throughout the fall, even the most respected sports or entertainment media in the United States have followed Swift and Kelce’s relationship moment by moment. The media is filled with timelines of how the surprising love story has progressed. Every infatuation of the duo, which has been able to be even remotely related to the theme, has been widely reported.
It all started on July 26th when Travis Kelce shared the story on his popular New Heights podcast, which he co-hosts with his brother Jason Kelce with. Jason represents the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL, so the brothers met in the Super Bowl last winter.
One of the phenomena of Swift’s tour is friendship bracelets. Kelce said on the podcast that he was watching when Swift performed at the Chiefs’ home stadium in the summer. Kelce would have liked to hand Swift a bracelet with his phone number on it.
– He doesn’t meet anyone, or at least he didn’t want to meet me, so I took it personally, Kelce carved.
Brother Jason mused that Swift was just pissed off about last season’s Super Bowl. Jason thinks the singer is an Eagles fan, after all, he was born in Pennsylvania.
When the NFL season started in the fall, the story quickly caught on. On September 14, Jason Kelce was confusing again when he was asked about the “rumors” related to his brother in the NFL studio. She stated that she tries to stay out of her brother’s dating affairs.
“But having said that, I think he’s doing great and I think that’s all 100 percent true.
It was like that throughout the early autumn. Each in turn handed out suitable swags to the media and fans – gasoline to the flame in suitable doses.
On September 21, Travis Kelce revealed on The Pat McAfee Show that he hoped Swift would come to the Chiefs game.
“I told him I’ve seen him rock at Arrowhead and he might have to come see me rock at Arrowhead,” Kelce smiled.
And then on September 24, a real crazy mill was unleashed. Taylor Swift was cheering on Kelce in the same arena Donna-with mom when the Chiefs beat the Chicago Bears.
One of the NFL’s biggest superstars, the quarterback for the Chiefs Patrick Mahomes said he was under pressure to pass a touchdown to Kelce. It did in the third quarter, and Swift bounced wildly in the box.
After that game, Kelce and Swift were seen together for the first time as they left the stadium. At the same time, we got a taste of what kind of spheres the duo’s monitoring could reach.
Kelce was wearing an outfit called the 1989 sleep set. Many fans immediately pointed out that Kelce’s outfit is on purpose, as Swift will release the album 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in October.
The effects were immediately tangible
Neither of them said a word about their relationship publicly, i.e. directly, but Kelce followed his usual line. He threw jabs at the media here and there, until he ended the interviews by stating that “I’m not going to talk about my personal life”.
In any case, the Swift effect was immediate. Sales of Kelce jerseys increased by more than 400 percent.
Kelce, the Chiefs, and the NFL’s social media followers all skyrocketed. NFL shows were full of Swift dope. The following week’s game between New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs became the most watched NFL game since the Super Bowl.
The NFL, sponsors and TV channels are trying to make the most of it. The NFL changed its intro text to “NFL (Taylor’s Version)” in X. Kelce caused a stir by blasting NFL commentators on Facebook who had quoted Swift’s song lyrics. NBC promoted the Jets-Chiefs game by welcoming Swift to New York.
Both pop music and the NFL are equally entertainment businesses, but now completely new target groups suddenly opened up for both areas.
Swift’s fans are mainly young women, but now all 60-year-old men who watch the NFL also knew about the pop star’s Eras Tour. The NFL has had difficulties reaching, for example, the Latino population, and in addition, the NFL is still looking for its real breakthrough in the European market.
Spokesperson for the ticketing website StubHub Adam Budelli said for Reutersthat the union of the NFL and Swift is a “match made in heaven” in English.
Sales of Chiefs matches tripled in 24 hours thanks to the Swift effect. The number of TV viewers at Chiefs matches has grown the most in the group of women aged 18–49. The Kelce brothers’ podcast jumped from 158th place to number one on Apple’s charts.
– Swift’s participation in NFL matches is like gold dust for the league, formulated the manager of the London-based Trippant communications agency Tom Scott.
The relationship is real!
On October 14, Swift and Kelce arrived hand in hand for the new season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Both also appeared in the show, although in different program numbers.
On October 22, Swift was at the Chiefs game again, now Patrick Mahomes’ wife Brittany’s with. Where did it all start? This time, Swift wore a bracelet with Kelce’s game number 87 on his arm during the match.
If there was something unclear about the “status”, it was revealed in November at the latest. Kelce traveled to Buenos Aires while Swift’s concert tour continued in Argentina.
Swift had changed the lyrics of one of her songs to refer to Kelce. At the end of the concert, Swift rushed to Kelce and kissed him. The audience went wild. Kelce had watched the show on the side of the stage with Swift’s father.
– Yes, somehow he made one of America’s most popular things – American football – even more popular, Time magazine wrote in its extensive article.
Swift marveled at how the cameras always follow her. In reality, Swift has been making the most of her NFL visits, and it’s been impossible not to notice her.
– I’m only supporting Travis in the matches. Soccer is great, I noticed. I’ve been missing out on it my whole life.
Swift also opened up to Time that the two started dating as soon as Kelce first talked about her on his podcast in July. Swift thought the NFL star’s revelation on the podcast was “cool as hell”.
– So we spent a lot of time when nobody knew yet. I’m grateful for that because we got to know each other. When I went to my first NFL game, we were already a couple.
Also, Kelce has already spoken openly about his relationship in public when he gave personal interview for the Wall Street Journal.
Accusations of a PR stunt
The couple’s relationship has also caused disbelief, for understandable reasons.
First of all, the NFL came under criticism, whose Swift marketing ladder, according to many, started to go overboard. Kelce reflected that the NFL isn’t used to celebrity presence the same way the NBA is.
The NFL had to defend itself with a press release, which said that the league constantly changes the introductory texts and profile pictures of its social media accounts.
– The news of Swift and Kelce has been a pop culture moment that we’ve leaned on in real time because it’s the intersection of sports and entertainment, and we’ve gotten an incredible amount of positivity around sports.
Various claims have also been made regarding the star couple. For example, a well-known US sports journalist Bill Simmons uploaded that “a few of Swift’s relationships have left a strategic flavor”.
At least Swift’s relationships and breakups have been significant fuel for her public image and her song lyrics. Many romances have taken place at significant h-moments in their careers. Swift released an album this fall. In addition, the long-awaited film about his concert tour premiered and immediately broke records.
Kelce has made millions in ways other than dribbling balls. Already in 2016, Kelce was the main character in a dating show where he was looking for a partner. Last winter, he hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live and also earns income as an advertising face.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Kelce, after his sports career, was a highly popular factor in the field of media entertainment.
Doubters who claim the relationship is a PR stunt may be completely wrong. However, it is a hard number fact how Swift and Kelce have both brought the other party a huge number of fans from new target groups.
It is at least clear that the moment-by-moment monitoring will continue.
Editor of YleX Katri Norrlin reviewed Taylor Swift’s career at the end of November. He is one of the world’s biggest pop stars, whose influence can be seen in the fields of music, culture and economy.
Sources: Forbes, Forbes, The Guardian, ESPN, Time, Billboard, Reuters,