Could Taylor Swift show up at Lambeau Field for Chiefs-Packers game? That's the big question.
Kendra MeinertGREEN BAY - It’s the giant lipstick red question mark looming over Green Bay this week: Will she or won’t she?
Nobody knows, of course. Where would be the fun — or the pop culture drama — in knowing already on Tuesday if Taylor Swift will roll into town Sunday night for the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field?
It could be a whole week of waiting, speculating, wishing or eye rolling, depending on where you fall on that very broad spectrum of passionate, giddy Swifties and annoyed football diehards. Like it or not, ever since the biggest pop star on the planet has found romance with tight end Travis Kelce, every Chiefs game on the schedule now comes with the pre-pregame exercise of trying to guess if she’ll be in attendance to cheer him on.
So here we go, Green Bay. Your turn ...
Is she even free from The Eras Tour that night?
As a matter of fact, she is. She played her final 2023 tour date on Sunday in Brazil, and US Weekly reports she landed in Kansas City on Monday. The Eras Tour doesn’t resume until Feb. 7 in Tokyo, so that leaves all kinds of time for attending Chiefs games during the final six weeks of the NFL season and into the playoffs.
Swift was unable to make the team's last two games, Nov. 20 in Kansas City vs. Philadelphia Eagles and Sunday in Las Vegas vs. Raiders, due to touring, so she could be eager to get back in the mix.
What would be the allure of attending the Lambeau game?
You mean besides No. 87 being on the field? The Chiefs-Packers game is an NBC “Sunday Night Football” matchup, which means a national TV audience and national TV cameras. In other words, catnip. If it were just another Sunday noon game in the NFL’s smallest market, not so much. But this is a chance to be a very big fish in a very small pond — one with rain, snow showers and temps in the 30s in the forecast, mind you, but hey, that's what luxury suites are for.
On the other hand, it's a very small pond, and not an especially sexy one, at least not by celeb starpower standards. (No offense, Charlie Berens.) Hanging out in a stadium box with the likes of Sophie Turner, Blake Lively, Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, like Swift did at the Oct. 1 game against the New York Jets in East Rutherford, New Jersey, probably is not going to happen in Green Bay. And remember, she skipped Wisconsin's up-north neighbor, Minnesota, when the Chiefs played the Vikings in October in Minneapolis.
Didn't Simone Biles say she would be at Chiefs-Packers game?
She did. The most decorated gymnast in the world went on record back in October on the “Today” show to say she’s planning to be at Sunday’s game to support her husband, Packers safety Jonathan Owens. During the “Today” interview, Biles said she was looking forward to being able to attend more games in Green Bay now that her season was over. “Today” co-host Hoda Kotb immediately connected the dots.
“What about when the Packers play the Chiefs?” Kotb said. “I would like to see you and Taylor. I think that would be really cute, a great photo opp. I think we might see that.”
You have to admit, a shot of two such accomplished and talented women at the top of their games, together in a suite at Lambeau Field, would be quite a Green Bay moment.
It would be her first time in Green Bay, right?
Not quite. In 2008, when Swift was an 18-year-old up-and-coming country artist who was all curls and cowboys boots, she opened for Rascal Flatts at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon, just across Oneida Street from Lambeau Field. That was back in the pre-“Lavender Haze” days of “Our Song” and “Tim McGraw.”
Who knows, maybe if Swift got a look around historic Lambeau, she would be so smitten she could find a way to squeeze a stop in on The Eras Tour in 2024. Lambeau Field is one of just a few NFL stadiums to not get visit by the blockbuster tour. At 81,000-plus seats, it is the only venue in Wisconsin big enough to handle it.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @KendraMeinert.
