The Oakland Athletics Should Put Taylor Swift on Payroll
This is undoubtedly one of the best ideas I have ever had. By now, every casual sports fan is aware of the situationship between Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and superstar musician Taylor Swift. Is it for love? Is it for clout? That’s not really for me to say – I’m here to deal in facts. After seeing the dramatic effect her support has had on the Kansas City Chiefs, the MLB’s Oakland Athletics should put Swift on their payroll.
The Taylor Swift Effect
Taylor Swift has made appearances at Kansas City’s wins over the Chicago Bears and New York Jets. Per Forbes, here are some numbers on what her presence has done for the Chiefs and Travis Kelce:
- Fanatics reported a 400% increase in Kelce’s jersey sales which put him in the top 5 players in the NFL.
- Kelce’s podcast with his brother Jason, called New Heights, ranked first on Apple’s charts.
- Stubhub reported a threefold increase in Chiefs ticket searches.
- Ahead of their game against the Chiefs, the Jets sold more than double the amount of tickets in one day compared to their previous best day this season.
- According to Taboola, Swift and Kelce have been dominating the most-read-about entertainment topics: Taylor Swift is the #1 entertainment story and Travis Kelce is #2.
In the week following Swift’s first game attendance, Kelce gained more than 860,000 Instagram followers. It’s not some grand revelation that T-Swift does numbers, but seeing the effect written out is nonetheless staggering.
T-Swift Could Save the Oakland Athletics
That brings me to my main thesis. Other teams and leagues need to take notice of the Taylor Swift Effect and leverage that for their own ratings. I’m pretty confident the pop star and her army of Swifties could completely change the trajectory of the Oakland Athletics franchise.
The A’s finished the 2023 MLB season with the worst record in the league. Their team payroll of $62 million was significantly below the league average of $165 million. Oakland’s average attendance in 2022 was 9,973 per game, also last in MLB. League average was 26,843. After years in the dilapidated Oakland Coliseum, the Athletics are relocating to Las Vegas and alienating their whole fanbase. It’s a dumpster fire, but you can’t look at what the Kansas City Chiefs are experiencing and tell me Taylor Swift couldn’t turn this ship around.
I’m not even saying Taylor Swift has to date an Oakland A’s player. Seeing JJ Bleday jersey sales go through the roof would be awesome, but all she really has to do is go to the games. Travis Kelce can even come with her. The Swifties take care of the rest. Attendance and revenue would dramatically increase. Oakland would go from an irrelevant franchise to the most popular overnight. It’s a pretty foolproof plan.
MLB has struggled to effectively market its own product for years now, but there’s a pretty easy solution to that problem right in front of them. It’s the next iteration of Moneyball. Or Moneyball meets Fever Pitch. Either way, it’s a great idea and any MLB team that takes advantage of it can thank me.
***
SUBSCRIBE to the Vendetta YouTube Channel!
SHOP for Vendetta Merch!
SUPPORT Vendetta on Patreon!
