As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare for their first game of the 2024 NFL season, fans are expecting Taylor Swift will be cheering them on at Arrowhead Stadium.
Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt was asked about Swift’s potential attendance at the team’s home opener game on the Thursday, September 5, episode of Today. “It’s always a little bit of a surprise, but I’m sure the TV cameras will find her,” he told Craig Melvin.
The Chiefs are set to face off against the Baltimore Ravens for the first time since the AFC Championship earlier this year at Arrowhead Stadium. Swift, 34, cheered on her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, at the January game, as well as at Super Bowl LVIII the following month. (The Chiefs scored their second consecutive Super Bowl, defeating the San Francisco 49ers.)
Swift is likely to attend multiple Chiefs games during her two-month break from The Eras Tour. She concluded the European leg of her tour in London last month and is set to resume shows on October 18 in Miami.
Hunt, 59, gushed over the couple’s relationship on Today, stating that it’s been “fun to see them together over the last year.” Noting that Swift’s first appearance at a Chiefs game in September 2023 took them “by surprise,” Hunt is happy that the pop star has a positive impact on the Chiefs’ fan base.
“We have a whole lot more female fans now, and specifically young female fans,” he told Melvin, 45.
Hunt also addressed Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ claims that Swift has been drawing up plays for the team. Kelce, 34, clarified on the Tuesday, September 3, episode of The Rich Eisen Show that “none of the plays have gotten to coach [Andy] Reid yet,” adding, “But if they do, I’ll make sure everyone knows whether it was her creation.”
Hunt, for his part, said that because Reid, 66, is “very open-minded,” he “wouldn’t be surprised if Travis brings a play to Andy that maybe Taylor had a little something to do with.”
Swift and Kelce’s relationship originated at Arrowhead Stadium, as Kelce tried to give the Grammy winner a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it at a July 2023 Eras Tour show at the Chief’s home field. The pair connected after Travis discussed the failed meeting on an episode of his and Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast. In her December 2023 TIME Person of the Year cover story, Swift confirmed that she and Travis were dating by the time she attended her first game that September.
On Today, Hunt revealed that he was at the same Kansas City Eras Tour show that sparked the couple’s connection. “I was here for both nights of her performance. What an incredible performer she is,” he stated. “She’s absolutely amazing.”
Hunt has been a vocal supporter of Swift and Travis’s relationship over the past year, declaring at an “Athletes in Action” event in Ohio in June that Swift is officially a “part of the Chiefs Kingdom.”
