Taylor Swift, the NFL and a new wave of female sports fandom

{"text":[[{"start":13.7,"text":"During the first half of Sunday’s Super Bowl, the Jumbotron at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas briefly cut away from the action on the field to show Taylor Swift chugging a beer in her luxury suite overlooking the stadium. "}],[{"start":25.02,"text":"Swift was there, of course, to cheer on her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs, who won their second consecutive National Football League championship in dramatic extra time. "}],[{"start":36.019999999999996,"text":"But the biggest winner of the evening was the NFL, by all measures the single greatest unifying live entertainment behemoth in the US. "},{"start":43.236999999999995,"text":"The league was given a tremendous gift when Swift began attending fixtures this year: ticket sales for some Chiefs games nearly tripled, and overall NFL ratings rose 7 per cent for the 2023 season. "}],[{"start":55.199999999999996,"text":"It’s great news for the NFL, but the most powerful sports league in the richest country in the world should not be dependent upon the whims of a pop star’s social life to develop a deeper relationship with female fans. "}],[{"start":66.82,"text":"The millions of young women in Swift’s fan base are of great benefit to the NFL: of the roughly 58 per cent of Americans who watch football each week, three-quarters are men over 50, according to a 2023 study by SponsorPulse. "},{"start":78.845,"text":"SponsorPulse. "}],[{"start":80.36999999999999,"text":"Despite conspiracy rumours to the contrary, NFL leaders have admitted that the Taylor television traffic is just a happy accident. "},{"start":87.612,"text":"Roger Goodell, the league’s commissioner, told reporters last week that the NFL wasn’t clever enough to devise the Swift-Kelce romance even if they tried. "}],[{"start":96.97999999999999,"text":"“I don’t think I’m that good of a scripter, or anybody on our staff,” he said. "},{"start":101.55899999999998,"text":"“Taylor is obviously a dynamo. "},{"start":103.65199999999999,"text":"Everything she touches, there are people following, so we count ourselves fortunate, we welcome it. ”"}],[{"start":109.94999999999999,"text":"Sports fans who arrived in Las Vegas last week ahead of the Super Bowl shared with me their reflections on what’s working — and not — for female audiences. "},{"start":118.22899999999998,"text":"Across the board, they said, they enjoy the interpersonal stories in sport. "}],[{"start":123.53999999999999,"text":"“It’s all about how the team is functioning together,” says Lori Haddock, 55, a San Francisco 49ers fan from Omaha. "},{"start":131.382,"text":"“Football is a family thing to do . . . especially if you have something that you can watch together, that is so competitive and so fun. ”"}],[{"start":138.67,"text":"Like Swift, Haddock got into football through the relationships in her life: first watching Kansas City Chiefs games growing up with her father, and later switching allegiances to the 49ers when she met her husband. "},{"start":149.849,"text":"She says her daughter never caught the football bug growing up, but now aged 28, she’s recently embraced watching the sport with her partner. "}],[{"start":157.91,"text":"Kiah Cresser, 27, and Ben Mathiou, 28, travelled to Vegas from Australia’s Gold Coast to attend their first Super Bowl after Mathiou, a professional rugby player, scored tickets a year ago. "},{"start":169.877,"text":"Cresser, dressed fashionably in a trenchcoat and knitted caramel top, tells me she wasn’t much of a sports fan until the Swift-Kelce relationship blossomed. "},{"start":178.094,"text":"“It’s a love story, how can you resist that? ”"},{"start":180.687,"text":"she says. "}],[{"start":182.78,"text":"As a result, she consumes NFL stories on TikTok, and says she will probably stay invested in the Chiefs regardless of whether Swift and Kelce stay together. "},{"start":191.647,"text":"Her primary interest, she says, is the cast of characters in and around the game, including quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany. "},{"start":199.727,"text":"“It’s not really anything that the NFL is doing specifically,” she adds. "}],[{"start":204.84,"text":"To be sure, the league is making an effort to develop fan interest among women; last year, flag football — a non-tackle version of the game open to all genders — was introduced as a high school sport in the state of California, in advance of the sport’s inclusion in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, thanks to some persuasion by the NFL. "},{"start":223.494,"text":"If women have an opportunity to play the game, the thinking goes, it will further endear football to them for life. "}],[{"start":230.43,"text":"Such a strategy may pay off in the long run. "},{"start":233.497,"text":"In the meantime, American football is relying on images of Swift having the time of her life in her stadium box, high-fiving family members and cheering with her girlfriends. "},{"start":242.41400000000002,"text":"The message is a quietly revelatory one for some women: this is a space for your entertainment, too. "}],[{"start":247.89000000000001,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/142116-1707798648.mp3"}