https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/will-taylor-swift-have-an-economic-impact-on-the-nfl-01hb660vfj2d

That was the easy part. Swift showed up, made headlines, provided a new reaction GIF that will live on forever. So what now? Well, how about she takes the NFL up a notch in popularity. What if she could accomplish what Amazon Prime wanted Dude Perfect to do with an alternate broadcast, but all she had to do was show up and watch? What if Swift just showing up is all the NFL actually needs to get the casual fans who only tune into the Super Bowl to watch the regular season?

We've heard about the effect of Taylor Swift on the American economy for months. Absurd numbers have been floated and "reported" throughout the duration of the mega-successful Eras Tour. Fans supposedly spend $1,300-$1,500 and boost a local economy by "hundreds of millions" in a single weekend. It all sounds like ********, but this is a passionate fanbase.

Which is why I have to ask if the NFL and its broadcast partners are about to see a Taylor Swift bump.

The Chiefs next game is on NBC's Sunday Night Football against the New York Jets. This matchup lost a lot of luster when the Jets lost Aaron Rodgers for the season in their opener. Now people have to tune in to watch Zach Wilson. With Rodgers versus Mahomes, this would have been a marquee matchup. With Wilson, it should be a complete dud. But you throw in the possibility that Taylor Swift is shown on the broadcast cheering for Travis Kelce and apparently there are a bunch of people who care about this. She couldn't really provide a ratings boost? Or will NBC release the ratings next week and we'll all just think it's because of the usual NYC stuff?

Week 5 probably won't provide any answers either as the Chiefs will play the late-afternoon window on CBS with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo on the call. They'll only be up against Jets-Broncos, which should be horrid so there's another asterisks.

The real test will come on October 12th when the Chiefs host the Broncos on Thursday Night Football. How many new Prime subscribers will sign up so that they can watch Taylor Swift watch Travis Kelce? Hundreds? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Or will they all just borrow their parents' logins?

Over the next 13 weeks the Chiefs have six standalone games, six late-afternoon games, one 1 p.m. kickoff and a bye. During those afternoon games will YouTube see new subscribers? Will the only Taylor Swift ticket fans need become Sunday Ticket? Will Travis Kelce be able to hold on that long? Will anyone watch the games on Thanksgiving since Kelce and Swift will be home watching the games away from the cameras?

These are the questions we'll be answering over the next few months as we learn about the true economic impact of Taylor Swift. If she's truly big enough to take the only thing on television that matters - live football broadcasts - and make them bigger and more profitable, then we'll know that the real Eras tour was the football games we saw along the way.

Taylor Swift boosts NFL viewership (https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/taylor-swift-boosts-nfl-sunday-ratings-most-watched-telecast-week-24-3-million-viewers-1235735230/#:~:text=Sunday%20night's%20telecast%20of%20Fox's,%2C%2018%2D49%20this%20week.)

Sunday night's telecast of Fox's “America's Game of the Week” got the Taylor's Version treatment and delivered a total audience of 24.32 million viewers and scoring the highest among female demographics across the ages of 12-17, 18-49 this week.

It was only a matter of time before Taylor Swift and the NFL, "our nation’s two most powerful entertainment forces," collided (https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/taylor-swift-mania-upstages-nfl-sunday-e66cd43b#:~:text=It%20was%20only%20a%20matter,Chicago%20Bears%2C%2041%2D10.)

It was only a matter of time before our nation's two most powerful entertainment forces collided, and the double-unicorn magic happened Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, where a suite-nested Swift watched the local Chiefs demolish the sad-sack Chicago Bears, 41-10.

NBC should get monster ratings on Sunday night for the Chiefs and Jets.

Why Taylor Swift Has Never Played the Super Bowl Halftime Show

Taylor Swift is the biggest star in the music industry... so why has she never performed at the Super Bowl halftime show (https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/06/06/taylor-swift-nfl-super-bowl-halftime-show-set-list)? This is a complete history of why she has never played it, every conflict that has come up preventing this from happening, and how she could play it in the future.

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Taylor Swift to promote Sunday Night Football (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/nbc-taylor-swift-nfl-sunday-night-football-travis-kelce-1235604634/#:~:text=NBC%20Leans%20Into%20Taylor%20Swift,the%20game%20of%20the%20week.)

NBC Leans Into Taylor Swift (https://www.google.com/search?q=Taylor+Swift+to+promote+Sunday+Night+Football&oq=Taylor+Swift+to+promote+Sunday+Night+Football&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRg90gEJMTM4NGowajE1qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) to Build 'Sunday Night Football' Buzz. From a promo featuring Swift's "Welcome to New York" to friendship bracelets for on-air talent, NBC is hoping Swifties can bring big ratings to the game of the week.

Aaron wants to meet Taylor

Aaron Rodgers visits Jets and will attend ‘Sunday Night Football’ game (https://nypost.com/2023/09/30/aaron-rodgers-visits-jets-and-will-attend-sunday-night-football-game/)

Aaron wants to meet Taylor

Aaron Rodgers visits Jets and will attend ‘Sunday Night Football’ game (https://nypost.com/2023/09/30/aaron-rodgers-visits-jets-and-will-attend-sunday-night-football-game/)

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NBC Embarrassed Itself With Chiefs-Jets Broadcast (https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2023/10/02/nbc-taylor-swift-sunday-night-football-jets-chiefs)

From start to finish, the broadcast of Chiefs-Jets was hard to stomach for a legitimate NFL fan. If you aren’t a football fan and just tuned in for the spectacle, then NBC did a great job. But if you cared about the football game, you were treated to a rough three hours.

There’s a fine line between having fun with something and going overboard and becoming cringe. NBC was beyond cringe. And not just with the Taylor Swift nonsense.

I have no idea what happened in the pregame show and I don’t care. If NBC wanted to do three hours of Taylor Swift during the pregame show, fine. Nobody cares about NBC’s pregame show.

But then the actual game finally started, and the first thing the broadcast did was have poor Mike Tirico welcome the Swifties.

The second thing NBC did was have sideline reporter Melissa Stark give us a report on Swift and Aaron Rodgers: two people who weren’t playing in the game and had absolutely nothing to do with the game. So NBC made it clear from the beginning that it was going for a full spectacle. And full spectacle we got with numerous camera shots of Swift and Rodgers.

At one point, NBC was so beside itself with Swift madness, it was just cutting to Swift in the completely awkward ways.

Isiah Pacheco scores on a 48-yard touchdown run and starts celebrating? Who cares? WE MUST SHOW TAYLOR!!!

At another point NBC showed the street sign for New York City’s Cornelia Street, the title of one of Swift’s songs. Because that is what NFL fans care about during a close game.

You know what Sunday night felt like? It felt like the Super Bowl. A game that is catered to the nonfootball fan. The NFL’s biggest games on Sundays get 20 million to 25 million viewers. The Super Bowl gets 100 million viewers. So the Super Bowl telecast is for the other 70 million to 75 million people in that the actual game is secondary. That’s what happened Sunday. NBC figured it was going to have all these non-NFL fans tune in to see Taylor Swift jump around and make faces in the suite and NBC decided it was going to center the broadcast on those viewers.

It wasn’t just the Swift stuff that was hard to take.

The way Cris Collisworth “analyzed” Zach Wilson was truly absurd. Collinsworth spoke about Wilson the way a parent speaks about a toddler when they first use the toilet on their own after being potty trained. Anytime Wilson completed a pass, Collinsworth was effusive in his praise. Did Wilson play well? Sure. Did he play out of this world? Not even close. He was 28-of-39 for 245 yards with two TDs and no interceptions. Solid game. But by the end, Collinsworth tried to have you think Wilson was Tom Brady. Here’s what Wilson did: He led his team to 18 points and a loss.

All of this might have been fine if the game were a blowout or noncompetitive. But it was actually a good game, with the Jets having a chance to pull off a stunning upset. Plus, the point spread was in the balance all night. So the NFL fan was totally invested in that game.

But everything I say here is completely irrelevant because NBC is going to end up with a monster rating for the game, and that’s all that matters to the network and the NFL.

Football fans hated it, but the NFL and NBC loved it


NBC’s Taylor Swift-infused Jets-Chiefs matchup earns massive ratings (https://nypost.com/2023/10/02/nbcs-taylor-swift-infused-jets-chiefs-matchup-got-big-ratings/)

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Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the New York Jets in a thrilling game on Sunday Night Football. However...NFL players weren't the stars of the game last night. The NBC broadcast was overly focused on the reactions of Taylor Swift.

We discuss the NFL overly promoting the relationship between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce...and the detrimental impact it could have on the league. We discuss NFL fans getting agitated with the overpromotion of Taylor Swift. We explain how Taylor Swift is a distraction from the game...and how Taylor Swift could turn NFL fans against Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs.

NFL fans should stop the Taylor Swift hate (https://theathletic.com/4924355/2023/10/03/nfl-taylor-swift-fans-chiefs/)

We should welcome those who are new to football and maybe felt too intimidated to enter the arena before a pop superstar started showing up.

NFL fans should stop the Taylor Swift hate (https://theathletic.com/4924355/2023/10/03/nfl-taylor-swift-fans-chiefs/)

We should welcome those who are new to football and maybe felt too intimidated to enter the arena before a pop superstar started showing up.

NFL defends taking full advantage of the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce story: It's a "pop cultural moment" (https://twitter.com/ZSharf/status/1709635983535210946)

After Travis Kelce said on his podcast that the NFL was "overdoing it a little bit" with their coverage of Swift, the NFL said in a statement: "We frequently change our bios and profile imagery based on what’s happening in and around our games, as well as culturally. The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news has been a pop cultural moment we’ve leaned into in real time, as it’s an intersection of sport and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport. The vast majority of our content has remained focused on the game, our players and variety of other initiatives, including our Toy Story Funday Football alt-cast, the international games and more.”

NFL reportedly asked NBC, ESPN, Fox and CBS to show free promos for Taylor Swift's upcoming concert film (https://nypost.com/2023/10/05/nfl-pushing-free-taylor-swift-promos-on-networks-amid-travis-kelce-romance/)

Expect record breaking ratings for Amazon tonight (The breakup rumors were in full effect when she missed the Viking game last Sunday :eek:)

Taylor Swift planning to attend Travis Kelce’s Thursday night Chiefs game (https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/taylor-swift-planning-to-attend-travis-kelce-s-thursday-night-chiefs-game/ar-AA1i5IpM)

If nothing else, she is pretty. I don’t know her music from Adam.

Probably pretty rare in the NFL to actually be dating or have a spouse that actually makes more money than you. Even if he makes $5 million a year, that’s chicken feed from what she makes.