Yahoo Lifestyle Chiefs Owner Addresses ‘Taylor Swift Effect’ Ahead of Super Bowl LIX
Clark Hunt is giving credit where credit is due.
Ahead of Super Bowl Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs owner spoke candidly with CNBC Sports about the NFL regular season, the team's ownership, and even shouted out Taylor Swift.
Swift, who has been dating tight end Travis Kelce for a little over a year, is the namesake of a phenomenon that's been dubbed the "Taylor Swift Effect," which suggests she has a positive impact on almost anything she touches.
Last year, the Chiefs famously broke NFL records for ticket sales at Arrowhead Stadium for the 2023 regular season–something that a spokesperson for StubHub explained as being directly correlated to Swift's first appearance at a home game.
Now, Hunt is sharing his own thoughts on the matter, suggesting the "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" singer is deserving of "a little bit of credit" when it comes to the "significant" growth of its fanbase and increased popularity of the team amongst young female fans.
"Well, I think indirectly, the NFL has seen an impact," Hunt told the outlet in a piece published on Thursday, Feb. 6. "Certainly, our fan base took a big leap forward last year–particularly with female, specifically young female fans. I think we had something like a 30% growth in our fan base, which is pretty significant even for a team that won the Super Bowl."
"So you have to definitely give Taylor a little bit of credit for that… We still get a lot of eyeballs – this year, we’ve had several games and broken records, and I think Taylor is a little bit a part of that," he said.
Swift has yet to publicly confirm whether or not she'll be attending this year's Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, but she is expected to attend alongside her NFL star beau's brother, Jason, sister-in-law Kylie, and parents, Ed and Donna Kelce.
