Taylor Swift's trip into the past—and to the Super Bowl—has begun. As you undoubtedly know by now, the singer's Eras Tour resumed after its holiday break this week, with a three-night-stand in Japan's Tokyo Dome. It's already Sunday at Swift's departure airport, Haneda International, but in Las Vegas, which is 17 hours behind, her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, might be sitting down for some Saturday morning cartoons*. Or he might be scanning the streets for a couple that's even more famous—and scrutinized—than the Kelce/Swift pairing, as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are rumored to also be in attendance at the Big Game.
Though the Instagram account once used by many to follow Swift's travel to games has been taken down and its creator threatened with a lawsuit, we still know she's on her way thanks to the hard-working journalists who staked out the Tokyo airport. “About an hour after the end of the concert, Associated Press journalists were near Haneda’s private jet area when minivans drove up and someone went inside the gate area as four to five people carrying large black umbrellas obstructed the view of the person,” the outlet wrote in a Saturday morning report on her international dash.
Online flight trackers appear to confirm that Swift is in transit, with the Daily Mail suggesting that though Swift sold one of her two private jets last month, she had a second plane alongside her travel jet “should anything have gone wrong with the main plane.”
With the twelve hour flight from Tokyo to Vegas, Swift will likely arrive in Las Vegas as Saturday's sun sets over the Strip, a trip back in time without any of the temporal paradoxes typically associated with that kind of travel. But another hurdle awaits: where to land that controversial private plane.
According to a spokesperson for the Clark County Department of Aviation, there are about 475 private jet parking spaces across the four airports in the Las Vegas area. All those spots are full, says an FAA spokesperson. According to the AP, Swift might have to land some 200 miles away in California, at Ontario International, San Bernardino International, Palm Springs International, or Palmdale Regional.
Assuming Swift's plane parks without incident, her Super Bowl Sunday will be a dual family affair on her boyfriend's dime, TMZ reports. Her parents, Andrea Swift and Scott Swift, will pack into a suite at Allegiant Stadium along with son Austin Swift and his girlfriend, model Sydney Ness. They'll be joined by the Kelce family: Travis's big brother/Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce and his wife, Kylie Kelce, as well as dad Ed Kelce and mom Donna Kelce.
“Travis is covering all of it because he just wants everyone to enjoy Super Bowl Sunday together,” TMZ writes, but it appears that the Kelce family matriarch, at least, is content just to be at the game. "The boxes in Vegas are multi-million dollars so I have a feeling I'm not in a box," she told the Today show this week. "I have a feeling I'll be in the stands. As far as I know, I am in the stands with everybody else because it is a pricey Super Bowl."
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex presents the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award at the 13th Annual NFL Honors on February 8, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A 20-person suite is priced at $1.8 million, CBS Sports reports, while even the cheapest seats in the stands are priced at $8,100. Given that Travis Kelce's net worth is an estimated $30 million, and that he's got an average annual salary of around $14 million, that's still a lot of cash to hand off—so how would someone without a day job swing what's being called the most expensive Super Bowl in history?
That's likely a question being mulled by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who will also attend Sunday's Big Game, GBN reports, though it fails to note the source of that information. Harry was in Las Vegas Thursday to present the NFL Man of the Year Award to Pittsburgh Steeler Cameron Hayward, but it's unclear if he stuck around—or if Markle was there to join him.
The last time the Duke of Sussex attended the Super Bowl was 2022, and the duch*ess skipped that one. Instead, Harry watched the game with his cousin, Princess Eugenie, "from a suite sponsored by the tech company Salesforce,” Vanity Fair reported at the time. Perhaps that's how the less steadily employed do it: they let a well-heeled corporation foot the bill.
The San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs will meet at Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, February 11, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. ET at Allegiant Stadium near Las Vegas. It will be broadcast live on CBS stations nationwide, and will stream live on Paramount+.
*Before you start angrily Googling for my email address, yes, I know that the Saturday morning cartoons as we knew them ended on September 27th, 2014. However, the Lake Las Vegas Westin, which is where the Chiefs are ensconced, does indeed boast the Cartoon Network. If the guy from the Chiefs is in the mood for animation, that will certainly do the trick.
