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‘Sharing the KC Love’: Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce romance boosts Kansas City economy

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‘Sharing the KC Love’: Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce romance boosts Kansas City economy


The budding romance between pop superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce is propelling the city from a national destination to an international hot spot and boosting small businesses along the way.

“Everybody loves a love story,” said Jessica Palm, the vice president at Kansas City Area Development Council, which is responsible for bringing businesses and talent to the area. “Kansas City is the backdrop to this love story unfolding.”

On the map, Kansas City lies at the heart of the United States on the Missouri-Kansas border. And for the past 150 years, the two-state community has used a heart as an icon and “Sharing the KC Love” as a motto, capturing the hospitality visitors find among locals.

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“When I started in this role we were talking about Dorothy and Toto,” said Palm, who has been in the role for 13 years. “Now we are talking about global stages and the international entrepreneur, pop star hanging out in Kansas City.”

According to Visit KC, the Eras Tour pumped $48 million directly into the city. Couple that with Swift dating Kelce, and the city is abuzz about all of the hangouts the two are frequenting and the businesses they are supporting.

“It is a time to be in Kansas City,” Palm said. “If you’re trying to get a reservation at Prime Social, good luck.”

Prime Social is the Cameron Mitchell restaurant where Swelce (the fun portmanteau the internet is using for the couple) dined following Swift’s first NFL appearance. The trendy spot has received 4,900% more Google searches since the September hangout, and it’s only one of the many businesses receiving a Swift boost.

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You put me on and said I was your favorite

Chris Harrington and his girlfriend, Kathryn Cacho, run a vintage shop turned memorabilia store, Westside Storey, in Kansas City. On Oct. 22, the two put together a box of five vintage sweaters and a custom-made beanie after receiving an online order. When Harrington double checked the shipping address, he noticed the box would be going to Swift’s camp.

Cacho took a video of the package and posted it to TikTok before sending it off.

On Dec. 10, when the Chiefs played the Buffalo Bills, Harrington noticed Swift wore a rare ’90’s, black-and-red sweatshirt to Arrowhead Stadium. The sweatshirt he sold.

“She got what’s considered in the Chiefs community a ‘grail’ sweatshirt because it’s a very hard sweatshirt to find,” said Harrington, 38. “That sweatshirt was in my closet two months ago. And then to see it on the Time Person of the Year, one of the biggest pop stars in the world wearing it, is huge.”

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A week later, on Dec. 17, Swift wore the Kut the Knit beanie Cacho made with a red line around the crown and a black 87 on the brim as a nod to Kelce’s jersey number.

Swift’s dad, Scott, showed up in a red sweatshirt also packed in the original box.

Cacho’s phone blew up with text messages and DMs from social media. She sold out of beanies with 200 orders coming through her website. Harrington’s business did 10 times the sales he’s used to in the days following the football games.

There are still three sweatshirts unaccounted for, so football fans stay tuned.

More: Could Chiefs be ‘America’s team’? Data company says Swift may give team edge over Cowboys

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Say you’ll remember me, sitting in a private room

Gary Worden got a call on Oct. 24 around 8:30 p.m.

“That’s when I usually get a call that something is broken or maybe there’s a flooding,” said Worden, who runs the Argentinian steakhouse Piropos in Kansas City. “But my manager said, ‘Taylor and Travis are here!’ So I said, ‘Give them the private room. Make sure the staff keeps quiet and don’t make a fool of themselves.’”

Since Swelce dined at Piropos, which translates to “if beauty were a sin, you’d never be forgiven,” reservations have been harder to come by for patrons. The business has seen about 20% growth.

“I hate turning people down,” Worden said. “We have been taking as many as we can, but it’s been very, very busy.”

It’s been a long time coming

This may be just the tip of the Swift iceberg for Kansas City. Palm is bracing for a surge in momentum heading into 2024.

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“The word is getting out about Kansas City,” she said. Panasonic, a Japanese company, is building a $4 billion plant for a 4,000-person operation to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. Brittany Mahomes, wife to quarterback Patrick Mahomes, is an owner of KC Current and the National Women’s Soccer League team’s stadium, which will be the first women’s professional sports venue in the world. And the airport just opened a new, single terminal.

“I cannot go to a meeting without the first three questions being about Taylor Swift,” Palm said. “What does this mean for Kansas City? Or wow, have you seen Travis Kelce’s jersey is the number one jersey in the U.K.?”

With Kelce buying a new multi-million-dollar home and Swift staying more often in the Midwest, the only question is will the city of love become their mainstay home?

Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network’s Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.





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Police: Teen in custody after south Kansas City shooting leaves 1 dead, 2 wounded

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Police: Teen in custody after south Kansas City shooting leaves 1 dead, 2 wounded


KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Law enforcement continued to gather details on Wednesday for a triple shooting east of Hickman Mills that proved to be fatal.

The Kansas City Police Department told KCTV5 that officers responded to the 11700 block of Corrington Avenue and found a woman outside a home suffering from a gunshot wound and unresponsive.

Officers also found a man inside a home suffering from gunshot trauma and unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A third gunshot victim, a teen, was taken to a hospital. He and the female victim were listed in critical condition.

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Police said a juvenile teen was taken into custody in connection with the shooting and was held in juvenile detention.

Law enforcement stated that they have continued to work on identifying additional people believed to be involved in the shooting.

Editor’s Note: This story will be updated.



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Governors Implement: On the Road to Infrastructure in Kansas (Part II) – National Governors Association

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Governors Implement: On the Road to Infrastructure in Kansas (Part II) – National Governors Association


Recently, the Kansas Infrastructure Hub hosted its second convening for state, local and private sector partners (details from the first convening can be found here.) Attendees gathered in Salina, Kansas to provide updates from state officials on implementation progress, share best practices in applying for discretionary grants and coordinate resources toward project implementation across transportation, water, energy and resilience sectors. The meeting was enhanced by a targeted workshop on broadband project permitting and deployment, which took place the following day and coincided with the federal government’s approval of Kansas’ Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program Initial Proposal – a critical step in bridging the digital divide in Kansas.

In June 2022, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly launched the Kansas Infrastructure Hub (the Hub), a coordinated approach to align state agencies and local entities as they administer and apply for funding available through the federal bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Over the past two years, the Hub has worked to identify best practices from across the nation for deploying funds and maximizing opportunities for Kansas.

On April 24, attendees were introduced to Matt Volz, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Kansas Infrastructure Hub. An experienced grants manager, Professional Engineer and Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) alumnus, Volz will be building out a team of capacity builders to support local governments throughout Kansas. Next, KDOT Secretary Calvin Reed provided a series of updates on how Kansas is making progress on accessing and deploying funding under IIJA. Secretary Reed also highlighted the Build Kansas Fund, a $200 million fund for organizations that successfully secure federal grants for infrastructure projects under IIJA. The intent of the Build Kansas Fund is “to accelerate local infrastructure investment to support transformative community projects enabling Kansas communities to move forward with infrastructure projects, including improvements to water, transportation, energy, cybersecurity, and broadband.”

Throughout the day, participants heard from state agency experts on topics ranging from transportation to water to broadband to cybersecurity. The Kansas Infrastructure Hub Team provided additional “deep dive” insights on building regional partnerships to bundle infrastructure projects, developing performance metrics, financial tracking and reporting, braiding and blending funding sources, and grant opportunity research, among other topics. The day finished with a networking opportunity. Participants left the first day of the meeting with additional connections as well as tools to engage more cooperatively with each other and competitively in the marketplace for grants and support funding.

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Broadband Deployment Permitting Workshop

On April 25, the Kansas Office of Broadband Development hosted a day-long permitting workshop, where participants from federal, state, and local government, utilities, railroads, and telecommunications providers discussed best practices in broadband permitting. Participants heard from the federal officials from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state officials from the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and Department of Transportation, and voices from the utility, broadband, and railroad sectors. Following a review of the Kansas SHPO online process, the NTIA reviewed how the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) applies to federally-subsidized broadband deployments.

Participants in the workshop also benefitted from a discussion with utilities and broadband providers regarding operational hurdles and practical insights to streamline the process for accessing existing physical infrastructure such as telephone poles. The informational sessions were rounded out with discussions of utilizing rights-of-way and a review of common permitting practices featuring voices from the state, federal and private sector.

The day was capped off with an announcement that the NTIA had, earlier in the day, approved the state’s Initial Proposal under the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program authorized by IIJA. Kansas can now request access to over $450 million in funding to close the digital divide and begin implementation of the BEAD program, including the subgrantee selection process and deployment-related activities.

NGA congratulates Governor Kelly and Team Kansas on a successful two days of infrastructure discussions and for the approval of their BEAD Initial Proposal . To follow NGA’s ongoing activities and support for infrastructure implementation, please visit: https://www.nga.org/bestpractices/infrastructure/.



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University of Kansas AD provides updates on football stadium project

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University of Kansas AD provides updates on football stadium project


LAWRENCE, Kan. (KWCH) – In August of 2023, the future home of Jayhawk football was announced. A reimagined David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium along with a new conference center, a combination of new retail, dining and other amenities. Today phase one of construction is well underway. 12 News met with University of Kansas athletic director Travis Goff on an update of the project nine months since the announcement.

“Obviously you have some steel now starting to raise up,” Goff said. “We’re going vertical and it’s taking shape. I don’t want to say they’re ahead of schedule but thus far they’re on schedule.”

The Jayhawks were originally slated to play their upcoming 2024 season at the site of the construction on David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, but a pivot was made – specifically up the Kansas Turnpike.

KU came to an agreement with Sporting Kansas City and the Kansas City Chiefs to play their home schedule in Children’s Mercy Park and Arrowhead Stadium, rather than in Lawrence.

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Goff said the quick pivot to Kansas City that was officially announced just two months after the final home game of the 2023 season was due to making sure the experience of a Jayhawk football game wasn’t lessened.

“Out of the gates, the notion was ‘Let’s find a way to play through the construction on campus,’” Goff said. “‘As things evolved the fan experience wasn’t even going to come close to what we’d aspire for it to be.’”

Although the playing conditions in Lawrence aren’t near ready for football to be played this August, Goff reassured that the fundraising for the stadium is well on its way.

“We’ve raised well over $150 million to secure this $50 million dollar grant,” Goff explained. “Athletics will do some borrowing, of course, to take on some debt service to fund a small portion of that $450 million goal, but we feel good about the pathway and of course the fundraising has been the catalyst to get this done.”

With the move to Kansas City fans in Lawrence will end up having to wait nearly 21 months to see a football game on campus, but Goff said the wait for it to return to Lawrence will be worthwhile for the finished product of phase one.

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“Our people deserve it if we’re being honest,” he said. “We haven’t always been able to provide world class fan experience.”

The Jayhawks begin their season at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City on August 29 against Lindenwood.



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