Taylor Swift might be the best thing to happen to ticket resellers (and scalpers) in a long, long while.
Ticket prices to this week’s New York Jets game jumped more than 40% on rumors that Taylor Swift might be in attendance. The Jets will be playing the Kansas City Chiefs, whose tight end Travis Kelce is rumored to be dating the pop star (something neither of them has confirmed).
The Jets, of course, are having a lousy season. Their star quarterback Aaron Rodgers was taken out of action for the season after just a few plays in his first game. And the team is at the bottom of the AFC East with a 1–2 record. Normally, that would make it fairly easy to get a ticket.
But with the Eras tour on break and fascination with Swift’s life at an all-time high, fans seem just as happy to catch a glimpse of her at a game. A TickPick spokesperson said once rumors Swift would be attending came out, the “get-in” price of the game jumped from $83 to $119. As of this morning, that has dropped down to $110, while the average ticket purchase price is $237.
TickPick says sales have doubled since the rumor leaked.
Meanwhile, StubHub has seen a surge in interest as well, with nearly 1,400 people looking for tickets to the game per hour as of midmorning Friday.
Swift’s appearance at last week’s Chiefs game and rumors of the romance with Kelce have been a boon to the NFL (and other businesses). Sales of Kelce’s jersey have spiked nearly 400% since she showed up at the game. Swifties are brushing up on the sport’s rules. Even Heinz has gotten in on the frenzy, relabeling its ketchup/ranch dressing hybrid “Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch” after a picture of Swift’s chicken finger snack appeared online.
