Taylor Swift Is So Powerful That the NFL Took Her Into Consideration As It Planned Its 2024 Schedule
It’s less about her relationship with Travis Kelce and more about her Eras Tour, though—but still.
Taylor Swift will take the stage tonight in Stockholm in support of her ongoing Eras Tour—her first of three shows there over the weekend. After watching her perform in Paris last weekend, her boyfriend Travis Kelce stayed in Europe, where the two took part in a romantic boat ride and dinner together in Lake Como, Italy, where they were spotted kissing on the way to eat at Locanda La Tirlindana restaurant, Entertainment Tonight reports.
“I don’t know if they’re just getting better, or if I just keep forgetting how they are,” Kelce said on his podcast, “New Heights,” of the shows he caught after Swift’s brief hiatus from the tour, during which time she released her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. “It was electric.”
Swift resumed her Eras Tour last week in Paris after a brief hiatus.
He added on his podcast—which he co-hosts with his brother, Jason—“It just looks like they’re having so much fun up there and they’re absolutely killing it,” he said. “They’re putting on a show that you won’t get anywhere else.”
Kelce, who is a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, said he plans to be “all over the world” this summer, presumably following the Eras Tour as it takes on Europe. (Europe, by the way, is Kelce’s fifth continent he’s watched his girlfriend perform in—North America, South America, Australia, Asia, and now Europe makes five.)
While Swift was off of the Eras Tour, she and Kelce went to Coachella together.
Today seems a long way away from football season, and, in a true testament to Swift’s power, apparently the NFL is literally planning its schedule around her Eras Tour shows. Last season—her first dating Kelce—she was a fixture at many of his games, including the Super Bowl, where the Chiefs clinched their latest championship, this time over the San Francisco 49ers. Because of Swift’s impact on the sport—bringing in viewership numbers just because of who she is—the league is, according to Us Weekly, planning its season around her shows. (The European leg of the tour concludes August 20, and for the final leg she’ll return to North America, playing in Miami and New Orleans in October, Indianapolis and Toronto in November, and Vancouver in December, ultimately closing the show on December 8 in the Canadian city.)
The tour will be all over Europe this summer.
It will return to North America in the fall, heading to Miami and New Orleans in October and Indianapolis in November.
MLFootball wrote on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) that the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning Mike North said “the #NFL took Taylor Swift’s concert scheduling into account when making the 2024 schedule.” Sports reporter Pete Sweeney added that, while that is true, “North meant in terms of certain stadiums she is holding concerts in, such as Miami,” he tweeted. “Nothing to do with the Chiefs.”
ESPN then featured North’s full statement about the Eras Tour, which read “We certainly considered the tour dates that hit NFL stadiums. I think she’s in Miami, maybe New Orleans, Indy. We certainly considered those. One thing we didn’t consider—I saw a lot of conspiracy theorists talking about Kansas City at Buffalo in the middle of the season, right when Taylor’s playing Toronto. That one definitely did not hit our radar screen.” (She’s powerful, but maybe not that powerful.)
All three of those cities have NFL teams, and the Eras Tour had to be considered as the NFL built the 2024 schedule.
According to the tour schedule, Swift will likely be able to attend the Chiefs’ opener in September, and most of the Chiefs schedule actually does align with Swift’s tour schedule, which will allow “for appearances later that month [September] and into October,” Us Weekly writes. “Most November and December dates don’t intersect with Swift’s tour dates, either.”
As for NFL cameras panning to Swift as she attended Kelce’s games last season, “The attention’s there because the audience wants to see it,” Jason Kelce told ABC affiliate WCPO 9 in February. “I mean, if people didn’t want to see it, they wouldn’t be showing it. I know that. She’s a world star, she’s the quintessential artist right now in the world, singer-songwriter, immensely talented, unbelievable role model for young women across the globe.” He added it would be “foolish” of the NFL “not to show” her cheering for Kelce considering global interest around their love story.
Swift was a frequent attendee at Chiefs games, and opened up the NFL to a much broader, wider audience.
Even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell weighed in on the Swift/Kelce relationship, telling CBS last November “They seem to be enjoying their relationship,” he said. “That’s great in and of itself, but it has connected more fans of Taylor’s and more fans of the NFL in some ways. [Swift is] an unbelievable artist, obviously. Travis is an unbelievable player, and I think it’s great for the league to have that kind of attention—so we welcome it.”
Swift herself addressed the attention in TIME back in December: “I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in,” she said. “There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once. I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”
Expect a repeat of this energy this season, as Swift should be available to attend quite a few Chiefs games.
Kelce called the season versus the offseason as “like the yin to my yang,” he said on “New Heights,” adding “Football, it keeps me locked in to Kansas City during the season, and I just gotta fly around and have some fun in the offseason.”
Speaking of having some fun in the offseason, as the duo’s one-year anniversary approaches, many close to them are calling for an engagement. A source told Entertainment Tonight that “their loved ones see an engagement coming sooner than later,” the outlet reports, adding “They make a great match. There’s no question about that.”
