Ever since singer Taylor Swift's relationship with NFL tight end Travis Kelce went public last fall, the world has tuned in to watch Kansas City Chiefs games not only for the team's winning ways, but to catch a peek at the star in the legitimately odd mix of extremely public (not like the glass on those VIP boxes is police interrogation-style mirrored!) and private (who among us hasn't lost our poise while watching a loved one compete?) circumstances. During the 2023-2024 season, members of the Chiefs organization would occasionally let it slip when they knew the singer would be heading to a game—but don't expect that this time around, as increased concerns over security have made Taylor Swift's game attendance a strictly-guarded secret.
That's not to say that Swift ever made her plans to hit a game especially public. Her team has been notably tight-lipped about her itinerary, rarely responding to requests for comment on how she spends her time when not performing in her seemingly never-ending Eras Tour. Kelce acknowledged that media blackout last year, saying then that as upticks in his on-field performance had been tied to Swift in the box, keeping her ticket status quiet was a way to stymie bookmakers setting odds for a game.
Those fears seem quaint these days, a month after Austrian officials thwarted plans for a terror attack during Swift's three-night Eras Tour dates at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium. The singer, who has dealt with threats and stalkers since the earliest days of her fame, said that the alleged terrorists' foiled plans "filled me with a new sense of fear.” According to attendees of subsequent concerts, venues demonstrated an increased security presence following the aborted attack in Vienna, and no credible threats against the singer and her fans have been made public in the weeks since.
According to the New York Post, that upped security extends to any Chiefs game that Swift will attend, a measure that puts any loose-lipped folks on the NFL side of things out of Swift's favor. The Post points to The Athletic's anonymously sourced scoop this week that Swift would be at the Chiefs' opening season game against the Baltimore Ravens—which she was, as we all know—as an example of exactly the kind of leaks Team Taylor is trying to avoid.
“She has presidential-level security,” an unnamed source tells the Post. “After Austria, her security firm is not too happy that her whereabouts are out.” According to that source, “there is speculation that the NFL team leaked the news, perhaps to draw more viewers to Thursday’s big game.” (Vanity Fair reached out to Swift's team to confirm the Post's reporting, but did not receive a response as of publication time.)
If true, the ploy worked. According to ESPN, this week's Chiefs game was he most-watched NFL kickoff game since Thursday night football began in 2002. 28.9 million people tuned in, an uptick of 5% since last year's Chiefs opener, during which 27.5 million people watched the (Swiftless) Chiefs lose to the Detroit Lions.
It's unclear what other measures Swift's team can take to keep her spectatorship under wraps, barring dubious popcorn machine shenanigans or dressing her up as a team mascot as she moves about the stadium. She's already made legal threats against social media accounts that track the movements of her private jets, after all.
In any case, it appears that even in these very weird times, Swift and Kelce are still making every effort to live as "normally" as two scrutinized people can: Friday night the pair were spotted at Lucali, a cash-only Brooklyn pizza restaurant known for its tightly edited menu of brick-oven pies Even without inside information, I feel safe in predicting that we'll see Swift in the stands (and the couple out and about) for the next few weeks, as the Eras Tour is on break until Friday October 18. After that, it's a cruel fall for the two lovers, as Swift will be performing nearly non-stop until December, while Kelce will be forced to take the field with only his teammates, family, and millions of fans for company.
