In a Friday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Kansas City Chiefs owner and CEO Clark Hunt said his team’s female audience has increased significantly since one of its players, Travis Kelce, started dating Taylor Swift.
Swift, who dominated the cultural landscape last year with the blockbuster success of her Eras Tour, made headlines after she was spotted at several Chiefs games. Her fans to turned their attention to Kelce and the team.
“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.”
Hunt refuted claims that the pair’s romance is a publicity stunt for his team, calling the relationship “purely organic.”
Besides a high-profile courtship, there’s another factor changing the Chiefs’ fanbase: the rise of sports streaming. Millions of fans tuned in to watch the Chiefs’ Thursday night game on Amazon Prime, Hunt said. The team’s Saturday playoff game against the Miami Dolphins is set to stream on Peacock.
“We’re very excited about tomorrow night being on Peacock,” Hunt said. “We think it’s going to open up a completely new fanbase to us, much more of a younger demographic.
