head of the Kansas City Chiefs‘ Wild Card playoff game against the Miami Dolphins, team owner Clark Hunt spoke about the franchise’s new famous fan, Taylor Swift.Since Swift started dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, the singer has attended nine games. While her highly-publicized attendance bothers some dads, Brads, and Chads, Hunt told CNBC’s Jim Kramer that he loves having Swift at games.
“It’s been a very interesting, very fun year having the two of them dating, the attention that’s been focused on the Chiefs,” Hunt said. “Our female audience has grown leaps and bounds.” He also refuted the claim that Kelce dating Swift was a publicity stunt. Their relationship is “purely organic,” Hunt noted.
Hunt’s comment also shuts down Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy’s claim that Taylor Swift’s presence at games is killing young fans’ interest in sports. During an interview with Fox News on January 12, Dungy was asked about a poll that showed less than 25% of Gen Z consider themselves “avid sports fans.”
“I think we’ll always have sports in some form or fashion. Some people are disenchanted with it,” Dungy said. When asked about Swift, “That’s the thing that’s disenchanting people with sports now,” Dungy said. “There’s so much on the outside coming in. Entertainment value and different things that’s taking away from what really happens on the field.”
According to Hunt, Dungy couldn’t be more off base. Back in October, the Chiefs owner told Venture Dallas that Swift courted a whole slew of new young fans to the NFL.
It’s been incredible in terms of what it’s done,” Hunt, 58, said. “For the NFL audience, we’ve had a huge shift for our games to young women, which is a very tough demographic. It’s been a lot of fun.