The budding romance between pop superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce is propelling the city from a national destination to an international hot spot and boosting small businesses along the way.
“Everybody loves a love story,” said Jessica Palm, the vice president at Kansas City Area Development Council, which is responsible for bringing businesses and talent to the area. “Kansas City is the backdrop to this love story unfolding.”
On the map, Kansas City lies at the heart of the United States on the Missouri-Kansas border. And for the past 150 years, the two-state community has used a heart as an icon and “Sharing the KC Love” as a motto, capturing the hospitality visitors find among locals.
“When I started in this role we were talking about Dorothy and Toto,” said Palm, who has been in the role for 13 years. “Now we are talking about global stages and the international entrepreneur, pop star hanging out in Kansas City.”
According to Visit KC, the Eras Tour pumped $48 million directly into the city. Couple that with Swift dating Kelce, and the city is abuzz about all of the hangouts the two are frequenting and the businesses they are supporting.
“It is a time to be in Kansas City,” Palm said. “If you’re trying to get a reservation at Prime Social, good luck.”
Prime Social is the Cameron Mitchell restaurant where Swelce (the fun portmanteau the internet is using for the couple) dined following Swift’s first NFL appearance. The trendy spot has received 4,900% more Google searches since the September hangout, and it’s only one of the many businesses receiving a Swift boost.
You put me on and said I was your favorite
Chris Harrington and his girlfriend, Kathryn Cacho, run a vintage shop turned memorabilia store, Westside Storey, in Kansas City. On Oct. 22, the two put together a box of five vintage sweaters and a custom-made beanie after receiving an online order. When Harrington double checked the shipping address, he noticed the box would be going to Swift’s camp.
Cacho took a video of the package and posted it to TikTok before sending it off.
On Dec. 10, when the Chiefs played the Buffalo Bills, Harrington noticed Swift wore a rare ’90’s, black-and-red sweatshirt to Arrowhead Stadium. The sweatshirt he sold.
“She got what’s considered in the Chiefs community a ‘grail’ sweatshirt because it’s a very hard sweatshirt to find,” said Harrington, 38. “That sweatshirt was in my closet two months ago. And then to see it on the Time Person of the Year, one of the biggest pop stars in the world wearing it, is huge.”
A week later, on Dec. 17, Swift wore the Kut the Knit beanie Cacho made with a red line around the crown and a black 87 on the brim as a nod to Kelce’s jersey number.
Swift’s dad, Scott, showed up in a red sweatshirt also packed in the original box.
Cacho’s phone blew up with text messages and DMs from social media. She sold out of beanies with 200 orders coming through her website. Harrington’s business did 10 times the sales he’s used to in the days following the football games.
There are still three sweatshirts unaccounted for, so football fans stay tuned.
More:Could Chiefs be ‘America’s team’? Data company says Swift may give team edge over Cowboys
Say you’ll remember me, sitting in a private room
Gary Worden got a call on Oct. 24 around 8:30 p.m.
“That’s when I usually get a call that something is broken or maybe there’s a flooding,” said Worden, who runs the Argentinian steakhouse Piropos in Kansas City. “But my manager said, ‘Taylor and Travis are here!’ So I said, ‘Give them the private room. Make sure the staff keeps quiet and don’t make a fool of themselves.'”
Since Swelce dined at Piropos, which translates to “if beauty were a sin, you’d never be forgiven,” reservations have been harder to come by for patrons. The business has seen about 20% growth.
“I hate turning people down,” Worden said. “We have been taking as many as we can, but it’s been very, very busy.”
It’s been a long time coming
This may be just the tip of the Swift iceberg for Kansas City. Palm is bracing for a surge in momentum heading into 2024.
“The word is getting out about Kansas City,” she said. Panasonic, a Japanese company, is building a $4 billion plant for a 4,000-person operation to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. Brittany Mahomes, wife to quarterback Patrick Mahomes, is an owner of KC Current and the National Women’s Soccer League team’s stadium, which will be the first women’s professional sports venue in the world. And the airport just opened a new, single terminal.
“I cannot go to a meeting without the first three questions being about Taylor Swift,” Palm said. “What does this mean for Kansas City? Or wow, have you seen Travis Kelce’s jersey is the number one jersey in the U.K.?”
With Kelce buying a new multi-million-dollar home and Swift staying more often in the Midwest, the only question is will the city of love become their mainstay home?
Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network’s Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
