A leading London pubs boss has said he expected a bigger boost to his business from the series of Taylor Swift concerts at Wembley stadium this summer than from football fans watching the Euros.
Simon Emeny, CEO of Chiswick based Fuller’s, said the hundreds of thousands of Swifties descending on the capital in June and August will result in a huge increase in food and drinks sales at many of its locations in the capital.
He told the Standard: “You cannot underestimate the effect that eight fully-booked nights at Wembley will bring, Taylor Swift will be more reliable than the England team.”
It is the latest example of the remarkable economic impact of the world’s biggest entertainment star who began the British leg of her global Eras tour in Edinburgh last week.
The Cruel Summer singer has sold out Wembley stadium for the eight nights, playing three concerts from June 21 and then returning for five more dates from August 15.
Estimates have suggested that the Eras tour - which also takes in gigs in Liverpool, Cardiff and Dublin - could boost the UK economy by as much as £1billion. In total 1.1 million tickets have been sold for the 15 UK and Ireland dates.
A report by Barclays has found that Swift’s UK fans are projected to spend almost £850 each when attending her shows.
The Euros start on Friday with hosts Germany playing Scotland. England’s first game is on Sunday night when the Three Lions take on Serbia.
Tickets for Swift’s London gigs are already being offered for sale online for more than £9,000.
Fans looking on re-sale site Viagogo can buy seats with a restricted view at the Wembley gig on June 22 for £9,282 with the cheapest tickets on the night going for £499.
Tickets for the night before are being offered from between £588 to £9,282 while tickets for a gig on August 16 currently go up to £8,263.
Last year the tour made an unprecedented $1billion, with around 4.3 million tickets being sold for the more than 60 shows she played in 2023.
It came after it was revealed that her fans caused such a stir at her gigs in Scotland that seismologists were able to record tremors nearly four miles away.
More than 220,000 Swifties watched her play three concerts at the Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh between last Friday and Sunday.
The British Geological Survey said fans on the first night generated the most seismic activity, with spikes caused by dancing particularly evident during her songs Cruel Summer, Ready For It? and Shake It Off.
Sophie Butcher, an Edinburgh volcanologist who was in the crowd, told The Times: “If you can imagine, you have 73,000 people in one concentrated place - jumping, clapping, dancing.
“As well as that, there’s a big bass sound system. All of that energy travels through the ground.”
