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Concerts have long been a crucial revenue stream for pro sports teams and facility operators, but the climactic end of Taylor Swift’s record-setting Eras Tour is taking on an even greater level of importance for Rogers Communications, which is now cornering the market on Canadian pro sports.
Swift began on Thursday a six-concert run at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, and she will end the 21-month tour, which has grossed about $2 billion, with three shows next month at Vancouver’s BC Place.
There have been multiple intersections between Rogers’s sports holdings and the Swift shows. The company-owned Blue Jays proclaimed on social media they are now in their “Tayronto Era” as the club publicly celebrates the pop icon filling their home ballpark.
The Blue Jays also have made the opportunity to purchase Eras Tour tickets available to Rogers Centre 200-level season-ticket holders who renew for the next two seasons. That two-year provision there elevates from similar sales incentives that many teams have used over the years in which a year of season-ticket purchasing is required to access tickets for coveted events such as an all-star game or playoffs.
On a corporate level, Rogers is the presenting sponsor of the Canadian shows of the Eras Tour, operating a series of Swift-themed giveaways and also using the tie-in to tout its 5G mobile network. As prior shows on the Eras Tour have shown massive demand for mobile data by attending fans, Rogers also spent nearly $6 million ($8 million Canadian) on a 5G network upgrade at Rogers Centre—a move that will also benefit Blue Jays fans once the club returns for next season.
The efforts arrived soon after Rogers’s deal in September to acquire a controlling stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, amplifying its claim as the most powerful team ownership entity in all of sports.
What About Buffalo?
As the Swift shows in Toronto also pull in a significant number of fans traveling from western New York, there is a notable four-day gap between each half of Swift’s six concerts in Toronto, a period that would easily have allowed for the roughly 110-mile trip on Sunday afternoon to Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y. Travis Kelce, boyfriend of Swift, and his Chiefs played the Bills that day in what is being billed as the NFL’s game of the year thus far.
Swift, however, reportedly did not attend the game, which was anticipated to potentially set a new high for an NFL television audience during the 2024 regular season.
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