Taylor Swift is one of the biggest stars in the world. She has sold over 200 million records globally, which makes her one of the best-selling artists of all time and is currently the most streamed female artist on Spotify.
Recently, she finished the United States and Mexico legs for “The Eras Tour” and will start again in South America in November.
According to Forbes, “by the time Swift is done with The Eras Tour, it will become the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. Current projections estimate that it will become the first such venture to pass $1 billion in ticket sales, and by the time it’s done with, that final figure will be much higher.”
Travis Kelce is also a star, just for a different audience.
He is regarded as one of the best tight ends in the National Football League for the Kansas City Chiefs and is currently in his 11th season in the NFL. He has earned eight Pro Bowl nominations, four First Team All Pro selections and two Super Bowl rings.
Both Swift and Kelce are incredibly successful and have accumulated significant net worths and trophy cases.
What nobody saw coming from these two, seemingly opposites, was that they would end up dating.
There were rumors the two were dating and those talks only intensified when Kelce mentioned on his “New Heights” podcast that he had tried to give Swift a friendship bracelet with his number on it at her concert in Kansas City and later when Swift was seen in a box at the Chiefs game against the Chicago Bears.
Later on, paparazzi photos confirmed that the two stars were in fact seeing each other.
For Kelce, Swift and their respective careers, this doesn’t affect them much. They have both reached the tops of their professions. But for the NFL this opens them up to a much larger potential audience.
The NFL already has the largest sports viewing audience in America as they average 188 million viewers per year which is almost 17 million higher than the next closest US sport. But this new relationship between one of the most well-liked NFL stars and one of the most talented music industry stars in the world has already opened up the NFL to a completely new audience and they could continue to see more and more new viewers deciding to tune into Chiefs games. In particular, the NFL has seen a large increase in female viewership for these games.
NBC reported an increase of approximately 2 million more female viewers for the Chiefs-Jets game compared with the previous three weeks of “Sunday Night Football.” Viewership among teen girls aged 12-17 rose 53% from the same period, according to the network, and 1.49 million people aged 2-17 watched the game.
Whether these new fans are here to see the football being played or just trying to get a glimpse of Taylor Swift, it doesn’t matter for the NFL. The television industry is a numbers-based game, and the NFL was already doing well before the love interest was made public, but they are doing even better since she has started going to Chiefs games as viewership numbers continue to go up.
Now, amidst many rumors that perhaps the whole relationship is fake or just a wild publicity stunt, the fans of Travis and Taylor continue to buy in while Kelce and Swift are just shaking it off.