Taylor Swift just wants to enter Arrowhead Stadium through the main gates.
Ahead of Thursday’s NFL opener, Chiefs team president Mark Donovan revealed what went into hosting the 14-time Grammy winner — who nearly broke the internet when she attended her first game at Arrowhead Stadium last September — and how the club prepared for her second year as a member of Chiefs Kingdom.
Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce began dating last summer, and she attended most of his games, including when the Chiefs beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl in February.
“We’ll be prepared for her, and obviously welcome her with open arms,” Donovan said about Swift in an interview with Front Office Sports.
Swift, 34, will be in attendance when the Chiefs play the Ravens in an AFC Championship rematch Thursday night in Kansas City, The Athletic reported.
Donovan recalled speaking with Kelce numerous times last season to plan for Swift’s arrival in order to keep her safe and manage the crowd reaction.
He explained that Kelce was nonchalant about Swift coming to support him, and said the All-Pro emphasized that Swift wanted to enter the stadium through the main entrance like other Chiefs fans.
“We’ve adopted her in Chiefs kingdom. Now, with Taylor, she brings a lot with her and it’s pretty valuable targeted demographic when you look at the makeup of her fanbase,” Donovan said.
“And we’ve looked at ways we can be respectful. I had a great conversation with Travis the first game that Taylor came to [against the Bears on Sept. 24].
“It was prior to the game and I grabbed Travis after practice and just said ‘Hey, I’m hearing through the grapevine Taylor is coming to the game.’
“He said, ‘Yeah, she wants to come to the game and that’s on her. I’m going to focus on the game.
“And I was like, ‘OK that’s fine. Um, it’s Taylor Swift. So we’re going to have to plan for this and make sure we’ve got a plan for her. We’re going to take her through the certain entrances and make sure that she’s safe and we manage the crowd reaction.
“And Travis’s response was ‘She wants to come as a fan. She doesn’t want all this stuff. Deal with her, I’m playing football.
“And I was like, OK, but she can’t come through the main gate. That’s not gonna work,” Donovan said, laughing.
The pair went back and forth and then Donovan explained the “intricate plan” the Chiefs’ security and Swift’s security came up with.
“Her security team came the day before and we had this great way of getting her in and out. Everything was great.
“So, the day of the game [Sept. 24] I get a call from my head of security saying ‘Taylor doesn’t like the plan. She’s going through the main gate.’
“And she did. She put on a hat and a Covid mask and some sunglasses and brought her group of people and they all came together he main gate.
Swift’s security detail made a trip to the stadium the day before the game to work something out with Chiefs security. “We had this entire intricate plan,” Donovan said. But that Sunday, Swift decided to enter through a main gate wearing a hat, sunglasses, and COVID mask pic.twitter.com/rQzGCLieJ5
— Tayvis Nation 🏈🫶🏻 (@tayvisnation) September 5, 2024
“Because that’s what he wants. She wants to be a fan, right. This is her off time. She wants to be there to support travis and were going to create that opportunity and we’re going to provide that opportunity.”
Donovan went on to explain that the Chiefs aren’t trying to capitalize on the Taylor Swift effect.
“This is another conversation we had with Travis. We did our very best to respect their relationship. So every week you see every single game broadcast that we have — they’re looking for Taylor.
“We made a conscious decision to respect the relationship. Not unlike any other player and their relationship. I think it’s telling that it’s a conscious decision to the point where [at Arrowhead] we didn’t play a single Taylor Swift song during the games. That was a sign of respect.
“We’re not trying to capitalize on this. We’re trying to celebrate it, but it’s not about doing too much or showing her every touchdown or anything like that. She never appeared on our big board. We had one day when we had six or seven big celebrities in the stadium. Prior to the game we show them on the big board… We show them on the big board and the fans will react.
“And I went to Travis afterwards and I was like, ‘it’s a little odd to me that we [showed all these celebrities on the big board] and Taylor’s in her suite watching, but we’re not showing her.
“He’s like, ‘Let’s just keep on doing it the way we’re doing it.”
In a separate interview on the “Today” show, Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said he doesn’t know where Swift will be sitting during the season opener.
“No, it’s always a little bit of a surprise, but I’m sure the TV cameras will find her,” he said ahead of Thursday’s game.
