Dear Taylor Swift: Why won’t you bring the Eras Tour to Charlotte? | Opinion
I’m going to Beyoncé’s show in Charlotte next week. By all accounts, the Renaissance World Tour is a once-in-a-lifetime concert, so I’m excited.
But I’m still upset that a certain other superstar isn’t bringing her tour to Charlotte at all.
Taylor Swift announced a second North American leg to the Eras Tour on Thursday morning. She will play a total of 15 additional shows in three U.S. cities, plus Toronto, in the fall of 2024.
Sadly, none of those shows will be played in Bank of America Stadium.
Why not? If we’re good enough for Beyoncé, why aren’t we good enough for Taylor Swift?
Even Attorney General — and current gubernatorial candidate — Josh Stein is hoping Taylor Swift will make a stop in North Carolina.
“Taylor — the Tar Heel state is Gorgeous in the fall. Please visit us. We would be Enchanted to have you so Don’t Blame Me for asking you to bring the Eras Tour to North Carolina,” Stein said.
Sure, it might not seem like a big deal for Swift to pass over Charlotte when there are hundreds of other cities across the U.S. that she hasn’t gone to, either. But think about it this way. All of the stops along the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour are in cities with NFL stadiums. Since there are only 30 full-time NFL stadiums, there are only 30 locations in which Swift is likely to perform. When all is said and done, Swift will have played in 23 of those stadiums (barring any additional changes).
That means Bank of America is one of just seven NFL stadiums that will not host the Eras Tour. It makes sense that Swift might skip over Cleveland, Jacksonville and Buffalo. Ohio, Florida and New York each have multiple NFL teams, so they weren’t passed over altogether.
That leaves North Carolina, Maryland and Wisconsin as the only states with NFL stadiums that Swift is not playing at. Swift visited some states, including Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida, more than once.
Some have insinuated that Taylor Swift coming to North Carolina is little more than a pipe dream. Earlier this week, the pseudonymous gossip account Deuxmoi correctly speculated that Swift would soon announce new U.S. shows. One person asked, “Anything on if she’s going to have a show in North Carolina?”
Another Twitter user replied: “girl she ain’t going there be serious.”
But we are being serious. Why is it so absurd to think she might come here? North Carolina is the ninth largest state in the country by population, and Charlotte is the 15th largest city. We have a team in every major league sport except baseball. If that weren’t enough, Taylor Swift literally has a song called “Carolina,” which she wrote for the film “Where the Crawdads Sing.”
Armen Shaomian, a professor of sport and entertainment management at the University of South Carolina, says that decisions for these kinds of mega-tours largely come down to logistics. Shaomian has seen numbers estimating that Swift’s tour requires as many as 90 semi-trucks to transport the stage and other equipment from city to city.
“Back in the day, artists could just hop on a bus or a plane and go perform,” Shaomian siad. “Some of these mega-tours have so much production value … You have to realize that your number one challenge is to essentially look at the map and draw out what is feasible for, you know, 90 semis to arrive.”
You don’t even have to be a fan of Taylor Swift to hope she brings her tour to Charlotte. The Eras Tour has been great for travel and tourism in the cities it has visited, and the Federal Reserve even credited the tour with boosting the U.S. economy. According to data provided by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, roughly half of concert attendees at Bank of America Stadium come from out of town, and Charlotte hotels are already seeing a boost ahead of the upcoming Beyoncé show.
Who knows? Taylor Swift is famously full of surprises, so she could announce even more tour dates in the future, and end up coming to Charlotte after all. (Théoden Janes, the Observer’s inimitable concert reviewer, told some colleagues and me that he would bet us lunch that the Eras Tour will come here before it ends.)
And if she does, she will find a lot of eager fans ready and waiting.
