How Taylor Swift's cultural impact is helping to shake up the women's sport landscape

As I rode the elevator up to the eighth floor of the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, the digital sign was informing people of the road closures around the building. The slide read, "The Swifties are Coming!"

For the next two weeks, megastar Taylor Swift and her legion of fans — known as Swifties — will be blocking traffic as she entertains hundreds of thousands of people at six sold out shows in Toronto for her Eras Tour.

In addition to the skyrocketing prices of hotel rooms, inflated Uber rates and hysteria around her presence, Swift hugely affects the sports ecosystem around her. Whether or not skeptics want to admit it, her connection to sport creates a cultural impact that can not be denied.

The NFL recorded ridiculously high social media engagement last year because of Swift's appearances at her boyfriend's games. In addition to a 400 per cent increase of Travis Kelce jersey sales, other leagues are leaning into any type of connection and link to the megastar. 

The Toronto Sceptres have an uncommonly close logo to one of Swift's logos in an old video and it may be wise to capitalize on that similarity. Sceptres player Renata Fast even commented with giggling emojis about that happy coincidence. 

Have we ever seen the likes of this kind of influence in sport before? And can it be used to help amplify women's sports and broaden sports communities?

Dr. Ann Pegoraro is a professor of sports management and the chair of Lang Studies at the University of Guelph. She tells me that the intensity of the fans is what makes the difference.

"Taylor Swift is a different phenomenon than previous stars, she does not follow traditional business paths — she forges her own and, therefore, she disrupts most markets she enters," Pegraro told me via email.

"While other celebrities have attached themselves to sport (e.g., Hollywood stars and Lakers courtside) most do not come with rabid fan bases like the Swifties."

The Swift Effect on women's sports

I have wondered whether Swift can influence women's sport, but as Pegararo pointed out, the question might be: is sport culture changing or is the Taylor Swift effect forcing that change?

The Swifties are a market accelerator and while Taylor is introducing her fans to sport, her fans are introducing sport to the purchasing power of women.

Swift has worn a Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens jersey years ago, so there is precedent for wearing one now. PWHL's Toronto team has already welcomed Swift and her opening act Gracie Abrams to the city with offerings of a custom Sceptres jersey.

Would Swift wearing a PWHL jersey convert thousands of people to women's hockey?

Not necessarily, but what it does do is introduce them to teams and leagues and that is not something to be taken lightly.

In terms of demographics, 45 per cent of Swifties are millennials, 23 per cent are baby boomers, 21 per cent are Generation X, and 11 per cent are Generation Z — and all of those groups have been largely ignored by men's professional sports.

But her crossover into sports is something welcomed by women athletes. Sarah Nurse is an Olympian, world champion, and player with the Toronto Sceptres, and she's a confirmed Swiftie.

Nurse, who is influential in her own right, as she was just named one of the 50 most influential Torontonians by Toronto Life magazine, creates videos on social media using Swift's music, and her agent told me she is planning to attend one of the shows in Toronto.

Then there is Nurse's teammate, Maggie Connors, who loves Swift's music and even has fans combining their love for the Toronto Sceptres with the friendship bracelet making craze.

Swift's music is inextricably linked with popular culture and fans. Last March at a PWHL game between Boston and Ottawa at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, over 13,000 fans sang one of Swift's greatest hits "You Belong With Me".

The moment merged a traditionally masculine sport with an arena full of excited girls happily bellowing a song about having a crush on a boy. Why can't a young woman race down to the net while being sweaty but then be decked out in friendship bracelets and buoyed by pop music glory?

What Swift does is couple her own brand of economic prowess and a passion for sports, but it's the unapologetic manner in which she does it that's the main takeaway. Then again, if I was generating more economic prosperity than the Super Bowl with my presence, I'd be very confident, too.

Swift may not have set out to be an ambassador of women's sport, but wielding this much power in any industry is not a normal thing. Even the Ontario Hockey League, which is not really known to serve a millennial women audience, had a ticket giveaway.

According to a report from Sportico, different teams and leagues including universities in Utah, Iowa and Hawai'i have had Taylor Swift theme nights to increase ticket sales and it has been wildly successful. The Kansas City Monarchs professional baseball team strategized by applying the Taylor Swift effect to their marketing and reached new fans, doubling attendance on a usual night.

Swift has disrupted spaces that were intended for people like her or those who love her music, who are often afterthoughts in sports boardrooms. But that disruption can fan out into love for sport, extension of sports fan communities and enjoyment for the athletes themselves.

It seems like whatever Swift touches turns to gold, and athletes or fans who are women or young girls want that. The women's sports scene deserves to be able to recreate and represent itself in any form it wants; be it economic strength, physical power or singing while covered in sequins.

Besides, who are we to fight the alchemy?