Lifestyle
How often will Taylor Swift be shown during the Super Bowl? Now you can bet on it
Taylor Swift’s likely attendance at this year’s Super Bowl — in support of boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — has inspired dozens of prop bets about the pop star.
Patrick Smith/Getty Images
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Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Taylor Swift’s likely attendance at this year’s Super Bowl — in support of boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — has inspired dozens of prop bets about the pop star.
Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Once upon a time, only the most diehard of Taylor Swift fans could be said to be interested in the pop star’s choices at the concession stand.
Now, you can bet on it. Yes, it’s true: This coming Super Bowl Sunday, the odds are 12-to-1 that the biggest pop superstar of our era will be shown holding and eating a hot dog.
The tectonic collision of the NFL and Taylor Swift, two of the biggest entertainment powerhouses in the U.S., dominated TV screens this fall as Swift began dating Travis Kelce, the star tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Now, with 115 million Americans or more poised to watch Kelce’s Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 11, sportsbooks are looking for their bite at the publicity apple.
Super Bowl proposition bets — wagers about the game that aren’t directly tied to the final outcome — have always been popular. This year, they’ve become a sideshow and a circus all their own. Call it the Taylor Swift effect.
How many times will the pop queen be shown during the game? Will she wear white, red or a longshot color? Which Swift song will the CBS broadcast team play first? And, of course, the big one: Will Kelce propose to her at the game? (Incredibly, the online sportsbook BetUS puts the odds at just 6-to-1.)
Who dreams up these Super Bowl prop bets?
When sportsbook oddsmakers set out to create a slate of prop bets for each year’s Super Bowl, identifying storylines is always the first step, said Dave Mason, brand manager at the online sportsbook BetOnline.
“Of course, this year, the creme de la creme fell into our laps,” he said.
Bettors can wager on 89 Swift-related prop bets on BetOnline in an homage to the singer’s birth year and platinum record 1989. The company projects this year to be the most-bet Super Bowl in the book’s 25-year history.
Swift, Kelce and the Chiefs have become the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories that allege the NFL has been rigged in order to promote Democrats.
The sportsbooks haven’t shied from politics, either: BetOnline puts the odds at 3-to-1 that former President Donald Trump will mention the singer on TruthSocial on Super Bowl Sunday, while BetUS gives it 10-to-1 odds that Swift endorses Biden after the game.
Once the Chiefs advanced to the Super Bowl with a win over the Baltimore Ravens in last week’s AFC Championship Game, the sportsbook’s oddsmakers set out to brainstorm ideas for wagers. (That process included a post by the company’s sportsbook manager on the social media site X soliciting ideas for props, with a promised reward of $100 in cash.)
“We challenged ourselves to come up with the biggest menu of Taylor Swift prop bets in the world. We figured since she sets the bar when it comes to entertainment, we had to do the same for our industry,” Mason said.
The results run the gamut from the Super Bowl and beyond: What color dress will Swift wear at this weekend’s Grammy Awards? Will she drink champagne at a Super Bowl after-party? Which will have more diamond carats, a Chiefs Super Bowl ring or Swift’s engagement ring?
Prop bets are designed to help draw in casual fans
Ever since a Supreme Court decision in 2018 opened the door for nationwide legalization, sports gambling is now legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia, the American Gambling Association reports.
The prop bets are designed to get casual fans “to try signing up and placing a bet for fun with a way to entice them and maybe get them to come back,” said Stephen Shapiro, a professor of sport and entertainment management at the University of South Carolina.
“It’s a way to draw people in. And so this Taylor Swift component, I think, brings an additional opportunity,” Shapiro said.
The NFL and sportsbooks should seek a balance between marketing and revenue opportunities while not drawing individuals into problem gambling, he added. (About 2 million Americans are thought to have a severe gambling problem, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling.)
Sportsbooks based in the U.S. are generally restricted to offering prop bets that are related to the game itself, like how many touchdowns Kelce might score, or whether the 49ers will receive the opening kickoff. (Such restrictions help ensure that bets have an objective outcome that bettors and sportsbooks alike can rely on, like the box score, Shapiro said.)
For Taylor Swift bets and other wagers like them, bettors must turn to sportsbooks based outside the U.S., many of which are not regulated by government agencies and may be illegal to place a wager with, depending on the state. Prop bet wagers that aren’t related to the game are often capped at $100 or less.
Taylor Swift’s appearance at Super Bowl LVIII isn’t yet confirmed
Swift has made a powerful argument for being the world’s biggest pop star. Her 2023 was a supersized year, thanks to her record-breaking Eras Tour, the first concert tour to gross more than a billion dollars. Even the accompanying concert film netted $261 million at box offices worldwide, good for the highest-grossing concert movie of all time.
A YouGov poll conducted this week found that more than half of Americans had a favorable opinion of her, higher than the president who is reportedly hoping to win her endorsement. And 6 percent — the equivalent of 20 million people — described themselves as “a major fan” of hers.
Any Super Bowl prop bets depend on whether Swift will be at the game at all. Her attendance has not yet been publicly confirmed.
On Saturday night before the Super Bowl, Swift is scheduled to perform a concert in Tokyo. Lest you wonder whether that’s enough time for her to make it to Las Vegas for the game, worry not, the Embassy of Japan said Friday.
🇯🇵 Statement from the Embassy of Japan on Taylor Swift’s Reported Travel from Japan to the United States ✈️🏈 Are you ready for it? pic.twitter.com/wFKadehTJk
— Japan Embassy DC🌸 (@JapanEmbDC) February 2, 2024
“Despite the 12-hour flight and 17-hour time difference, the Embassy can confidently speak now to say that if she departs Tokyo the evening after her concert, she should comfortably arrive in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl begins,” the embassy said in a statement on its social media accounts.
“She’s like a female Willy Wonka,” Sakief Baron, 36, said about Kendra Austin, 32, after she explained that her personal style had a playful and cartoonish spirit.
Dressed in loose, oversize layers in blue and neutral shades, the couple were walking on the Upper East Side of Manhattan when I noticed them on a Saturday in April. There was a symmetry to their ensembles, so it wasn’t too surprising when she noted that he had influenced her fashion sense.
Before they met, she said, she was “less sure” about her wardrobe choices. “I also have lost 100 pounds in the time we’ve been together,” she added, which she said had helped her to recalibrate her relationship with clothes.
His style has been influenced by hip-hop culture, basketball players like Allen Iverson and his mother’s Finnish background. “I just take all these pieces and then it kind of comes together,” he said.
Both described themselves as multidisciplinary artists; he also has a job at a youth center, mentoring children. “I want to make sure that I look like someone they want to aspire to be every time they see me,” he said.
In my L.A. Buy Nothing group, I started noticing how some objects, given for free from neighbor to neighbor, carry emotional weight. An item was more than it appeared. It was a piece of personal history, perhaps one with generational memories.
From one person’s hands to another’s, objects find new life through the free gift economy on Facebook or the Buy Nothing app. Buy Nothing Project, a public benefit corporation, reports having 14 million members across more than 50 countries who give away 2.6 million items a month. There are more than 100 groups in Los Angeles alone.
Buy Nothing reduces waste by keeping items out of landfills. It also builds community. When our lives are increasingly online, Buy Nothing encourages us to get out of our cars and make connections with neighbors, even if the interaction is no more than a wave when picking something up left by a doorstep. Researchers have found that even small social interactions can foster a sense of belonging.
Still, Buy Nothing has its challenges. For years, some have complained that the groups shouldn’t be limited to neighborhoods, but rather have more open borders. Last year, many longtime members complained about the project enforcing its trademark, leading Facebook to shut down unregistered groups even if they were serving people under economic strain. Critics saw the tattling as a shift from mutual aid toward control and branding. For its part, Buy Nothing says its decisions are based on building community, trust and safety.
Despite those disagreements, Buy Nothing offers a platform for special connections. As much as there are jokes about people offering half-eaten cake, many have passed along treasured items. Buy Nothing items may feel too valuable for the trash or too personal for Goodwill. The interaction between giver and receiver becomes just as meaningful as the object itself.
I set out to document these quiet exchanges in my Buy Nothing group, drawn to the question of why people choose to pass their belongings from one neighbor to another.
Tiny builders, big exchange
Lidia Butcher gives a toolbox and worktable her two sons used to Chelsea Ward for her 17-month-old son.
“We’ve had the toolbox and worktable for the last 10 years, it’s been very special. When I told my youngest son we were going to give it away, he was a little sad. He said he was still playing with it, but then I explained that it’s been sitting untouched for a year and that if we gave it to someone else, maybe someone else would be happy about it. So he felt joy about giving it to another child who would want to play with it. I have this little emotional feeling letting it go, but at the same time, it’s a good feeling. Like a new beginning.”
— Lidia Butcher, 35, joined the group several years ago when someone told her a person in the group once asked for a cup of sugar.
“We’re getting a worktable. Benji is now old enough to be interested in playing with tools. I’m going to move my drafting table out of his room. His bedroom is my office. So that will go into storage or the Buy Nothing group and the worktable will go in its place. We live in an apartment, and as he’s growing, his needs change but our space doesn’t. Buy Nothing is really helpful to be able to cycle out of stuff.”
— Chelsea Ward, 38, has found the Buy Nothing group extremely helpful since becoming a mom.
Something borrowed
Abby Rodriguez lends Sophie Janinet a veil for her wedding.
“Sophie had asked for a wedding veil on our Buy Nothing group and I’m lending it to her because I wanted it to have a second life. I hate the idea that precious things just sit there and never get touched. My wedding day was one of the best days of my life. At one point the power went out and now we have this amazing picture with my husband and I and everyone using their phone to light up the dance floor.”
— Abby Rodriguez, 40, discovered Buy Nothing when she moved to her northeast L.A. neighborhood in 2020.
“I moved to Los Angeles from France four years ago. The day I joined Buy Nothing was the first time I felt connected to the community. It played a huge role in my adapting to life here. I’m receiving a veil because I want my wedding to look and feel like my values. I thrifted my dress, I chose a local seamstress to alter the dress but when I tried it on, I felt something was missing. I wanted a veil but I didn’t want to buy new because I didn’t want to add anything to the landfill. So I posted a request for the veil on Buy Nothing.”
— Sophie Janinet, 37, is recreating the low-waste, slower-paced values she once lived by in France through her local Buy Nothing community.
2
1. Abby Rodriguez, left, holds her wedding veil that she is lending Sophie Janinet, right, for her upcoming wedding. 2. Michele Sawers, left stands with Beth Penn, right, while giving her a decorative owl.
A pigeon-spooking owl gets a second life
Michele Sawers gives Beth Penn a decorative owl.
“Coming from a place of luck, now I have plenty to give. The owl has been with me for 26 years. I bought the owl soon after I bought this house. The owl was purchased because I had a pigeon problem, they would camp out under my eves and I would have bird poop everywhere. The owl must have worked because they’re gone and they haven’t come back.”
— Michele Sawers, 58, uses Buy Nothing regularly to connect with her community and support her low-consumption values.
“There are things I don’t want to own. So borrowing those things on Buy Nothing is really nice. There is a person who I borrowed their cooler twice and their ladder twice so I feel like they are my neighbor even though they are not [right next door]. We get these birds that poop on the deck and the recommendation online was to get a fake owl. When it was posted on Buy Nothing, I thought, ‘I have to have that owl!’ It’s going to have a good home with me on the deck with some cats, a dog and some kids.”
— Beth Penn, 47, once helped build her local Buy Nothing group and now experiences it from the other side, as a member.
Stuffed toys find a new purpose
Magaly Leyva, left, stands with Tatiana Lonny, right, with the stuffed toys and play balls she is gifting her.
(Dania Maxwell/For The Times)
Magaly Leyva gives stuffed toys and plastic play balls to Tatiana Lonny.
“My mother-in-law gave the dolls and plastic play balls to my daughter, but she has so much. My daughter is not going to play with them with the same intent that another kid would, because she’s really little. I’d rather another kid use these things.”
— Magaly Leyva, 35, joined Buy Nothing nearly four years ago to find clothes for her nephew.
“I’m taking these new items to a township called Langa in South Africa. I know the kids there will be so happy. They have so little there. I’m doing this all by myself, I’m just collecting a GoFundMe for the suitcase fee at the airport.”
— Tatiana Lonny, 51, began using Buy Nothing in hopes of finding resources to support the animals she rescues.
A second helping
Laura Cherkas gives Aurora Sanchez a cast iron pan.
“Buy Nothing gives me the freedom to let go of things because I know that they will stay in the community and the neighborhood. I’m giving a couple of cast iron items that my husband and I got when we were on a cast iron kick, probably during COVID. We determined that we don’t actually use these particular pans and they were just making our drawers heavy. So we decided to let someone else get some use out of them.
“I hate throwing things away. I want to see things have another life. Sometimes I take things to a donation center, but I like the personal connection with Buy Nothing and that you know that there is someone who definitely wants your item.”
— Laura Cherkas, 40, has built connections with other moms through Buy Nothing and values it as a way to cycle toys in and out for her child.
Laura Cherkas, left, holds the pan she is gifting Aurora Sanchez, right, through Buy Nothing.
(Dania Maxwell/For The Times)
“I wanted a cast iron pan because I cook a lot of grilled meat. I’m excited to try this style of cooking out and it will help me when I cook for only one or two people. I got lucky because I was chosen to receive it.”
— Aurora Sanchez, 54, has spent the past two years engaging with Buy Nothing, finding in it a sense of neighborly support that makes her feel valued while strengthening her connection to the community.
Next player up
Joe Zeni, 70, is using his local Buy Nothing group on Facebook to give away a basketball hoop he used with his son when he was little.
(Dania Maxwell/For The Times)
Joe Zeni first offered a basketball hoop on Buy Nothing in 2023, where it remains unclaimed.
“I’m giving away a Huffy basketball freestanding hoop because it’s just taking up space. We used to play horse and shoot baskets together. My son is now 35, he doesn’t live here anymore.”
— Joe Zeni, 70, uses Buy Nothing often to give items away, believing many of the things he no longer needs still have purpose.
In the year since his death, there has been no hard pivot at Armani. The shadow of the founder has stayed in place over the Milan HQ, where the brand seems happy to leave it. Armani is not just plumbing the past for continued inspiration, it’s reselling it.
Today, Giorgio Armani is announcing Archivio, a grouping of 13 men’s and women’s looks, plucked from the brand’s back catalog and remade for today. (And, yes, at today’s prices.) There’s a jacket in pinstriped alpaca of 1979 vintage; a buttery one-and-a-half breasted jacket with a maitre d’s flair that first appeared in 1987; and an unstructured silk-linen suit that will activate ’90s flashbacks for die-hard Armani clients and those who want to capture that era’s nostalgia. The advertising campaign was shot and styled by Eli Russell Linnetz, who has his own label, ERL, but always seems to be the first call brands make when they want sultry photos with the aura of Details magazine circa 1995. (He did a similar thing for Guess recently.)
Linnetz’s images are a reminder of how Armani’s work still reverberates decades later.
Archivio is also a canny recognition of what shoppers crave now. On the resale market, Armani wares are as coveted as can be. Every week it seems as if I get an email from Ndwc0, a British vintage store, announcing a new drop of meaty-shouldered ’90s Armani power suits. They sell for less than $500. At Sorbara’s in Brooklyn, you can buy a tan Giorgio Armani vest for $225.
That vintage-mad audience is in Armani’s sights: To introduce the collection, it’s staging an installation, opening today, at Giorgio Armani’s Milan boutique. It will feature the hosts of “Throwing Fits,” a New York-based podcast whose hosts wear vintage Armani button-ups and shout out stores like Sorbara’s.
It’s prudent, if a bit disconnected. Part of the charm of old Armani is that it can be found on the cheap. I’m wearing a pair of vintage Giorgio Armani corduroys as I write this. I bought them for $76 on eBay. Archivio is reverent, but its prices, which range from $1,025 to $12,000, may scare off shoppers willing to do the searching themselves.
If you ask me, the next frontier of this archive fixation is that a brand — and a big one — will release a mountain of genuine vintage pieces. J. Crew and Banana Republic have tried this at a small scale, but a luxury house like Armani hasn’t gone there. Yet. Eventually, Armani (or a brand like it) is going to grab hold of the market that exists around its brand, but through which it gets no cut.
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