It has been a busy offseason for NFL stadiums for reasons unrelated to football.
Taylor Swift and Beyoncé hit various stadiums across the country for "The Eras Tour" and the "Renaissance World Tour" -- and saw success that rivals the venues' normal occupants.
On March 17, nearly a month after Super Bowl LVII, Swift began her run with two sold-out shows at State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals. According to the arena's website, the stadium has unobstructed views for 63,400 fans with the ability to expand to 73,000 for mega-events.
Through nine home games last season, the Cardinals posted an average of 65,203 fans, the fifth-lowest attendance of all 32 NFL teams.
This year's Super Bowl/Rihanna concert boasted a crowd of 67,827 fans. Swift's first show at the same site welcomed 69,213 attendees, breaking Madonna's 1987 record for the most attended concert by a woman artist in US history.
Meanwhile Beyoncé, whose 32 Grammy awards are an all-time record, began the U.S. portion of her tour at the Philadelphia Eagles' Lincoln Financial Field on July 12.
Yelp called her tour's economic impact the Beyoncé Bump, citing significant increases in consumer interest during the week before her Philadelphia show (July 6-12), compared to the weekly average in the previous year. LGBTQ-owned businesses (194%), nail technicians (193%) and town car services (69%) were among the largest recipients of the boost.
She made history of her own at five NFL sites with the highest-grossing box score report in each stadium's history, per Billboard. The figure is tallied by counting the gross revenue for an artist's entire run at a single venue. Beyoncé's number was bolstered by three consecutive sold-out performances at the Atlanta Falcons' Mercedes-Benz Stadium in early August.
Fans of both artists, aptly nicknamed the "BeyHive'' and "Swifties," have shown up in droves with demand far exceeding supply. Beyoncé and Swift's perfect attendance rate bests 14 teams in the category. From the time each tour was announced, Swift added 17 U.S. dates to her docket to bring her nationwide total to 53 shows while Beyonce added seven, raising her total to 32.
The scenario raises the question: What would it look like if either artist had the same number of performances at a single stadium as an NFL team does home games?
Each team plays either eight or nine home games, and the closest answer to the aforementioned inquiry came August 3-5 and 7-9 when Swifties headed to the house of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers.
The six nights of sold-out attendance at the 70,240-seat SoFi Stadium were more than the 2022 attendance averages for 22 NFL teams. According to research named "Swiftonomics" by the California Center for Jobs & The Economy, the multi-night stay gave an estimated $320 million bump to the Los Angeles County GDP.
Google Trends data shows that tickets for "Eras" had a far higher search interest in Los Angeles than the Rams and Chargers. Swift also led in the same category across the nation's coast while tickets for the "Renaissance World Tour" exceeded interest over the New York Giants.
According to estimates from Forbes, Beyoncé could gross over $2 billion from "Renaissance" -- nearly $500 million more than the $1.6 billion Swift could earn from "Eras."
Swift concluded the U.S. portion of her tour for the year on Aug. 8, but will continue performing overseas until Nov. 26. "Eras" picks back up internationally on Feb. 7, 2024, and return to America on Oct. 18, 2024, at Hard Rock Stadium.
There are still a handful of stops remaining for "Renaissance," including three shows in Beyoncé's native Texas (one at Dallas' AT&T Stadium and two at Houston's NRG Stadium) as the historically profitable NFL offseason overlaps with the regular season.