The Taylor Swift effect conquers NFL and could reach Formula 1
Taylor Swift at a Kansas City Chiefs game. / @GettyImages
The American singer has been a game changer in the NFL ever since her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce went public. Now, the “Swift Quake” could be on its way to the F1 paddock as well.
12 Grammys, 1220 awards and more than 1940 nominations are just some of the numbers for an artist who, according to Rolling Stone journalist Rob Sheffield, “is becoming a legend”.
But only by looking at the numbers can we really understand the extent of the success of the 33-year-old American singer, already considered the greatest pop icon of the last generation.
The “Swifties”, as Taylor Swift’s fans call themselves, are a mass movement comparable perhaps only to the Beatles, Michael Jackson and a few others. The artist turns everything she touches into a record.
With her latest tour, The Eras Tour, a celebration of her 17 years of music, her contribution to the US GDP alone has been the discreet sum of 5 billion dollars.
A tour that has grossed $305 million, more than twice as much as Beyonce’s own Renaissance Tour, and which the artist has decided to bring to the big screen, earning no less than 100 million dollars to date.
And it doesn’t stop there: The movement of the audience at her concert in Seattle caused what is now known as the “Swift Quake”, measuring 2.3 on the Richter scale.
Taylor Swift on stage during her “The Eras Tour” in the United States. / @ New York Times
An earthquake that has also hit the sports world since Taylor Swift began dating Kansas City Chiefs football player and two-time Super Bowl winner Travis Kelce.
A relationship that has caused searches for the NFL and the Chiefs to increase fivefold in the last month and has caused ticket prices to skyrocket for games that the singer has a free schedule to attend.
Even before the couple made their relationship official, Taylor’s mere presence at a Chiefs game increased female viewership during that game by 63% and, in just one day, Kelce’s T-shirts sold more than 400% more than the previous year.
This data — which, it should be remembered, covers a very short period of time, as Taylor only attended three games — has led to many hypotheses about what might happen if the Kansas City Chiefs were to reach the final of the 2024 Super Bowl. It is even rumoured that the Super Bowl itself is considering Taylor Swift to perform at the famous “Halftime Show”, one of the few remaining highlights in the artist’s career.
But it’s not just the marketing that has changed. The interest in the sport among Swifties, mainly young women, has already created a social media movement similar to the one Netflix once produced in Formula 1, with the launch of the Drive To Survive series in 2019.
On TikTok and Instagram, it is not difficult to find videos that help new followers enter the world of American football, which was previously considered a sport only for “true fans” (a statement that usually includes only male audiences), and which could now extend the NFL’s popularity beyond the borders of the United States.
Travis Kelce joins the group of investors backing the Alpine F1 Team. / @ Kansas City Chiefs
A phenomenon that could also reach the world of Formula 1, as the Alpine team announced a few days ago that six sports superstars, including Travis Kelce, have joined its group of investors. The French team is making a series of strategic investments, with contributions of up to 200 million dollars from private companies, and with additions such as Travis Kelce, they intend to make the Alpine F1 name world famous.
This weekend Formula 1 stops in Austin, Texas, and many are already wondering: Will we see Taylor Swift in the paddock?
