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During the first half of Sunday’s Super Bowl, the Jumbotron at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas briefly cut away from the action on the field to show Taylor Swift chugging a beer in her luxury suite overlooking the stadium.
在週日的超級碗上半場，拉斯維加斯的Allegiant 體育場的大螢幕短暫地從球場上的比賽畫面切換到泰勒•斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)在她的豪華包廂裏暢飲啤酒的畫面。
Swift was there, of course, to cheer on her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs, who won their second consecutive National Football League championship in dramatic extra time.
當然，斯威夫特在場是爲她的男友特拉維斯•凱爾斯(Travis Kelce)和他的堪薩斯城酋長隊(Kansas City Chiefs)加油助威，他們在激動人心的加時賽中贏得了連續第二個國家橄欖球聯盟(National Football League)冠軍。
But the biggest winner of the evening was the NFL, by all measures the single greatest unifying live entertainment behemoth in the US. The league was given a tremendous gift when Swift began attending fixtures this year: ticket sales for some Chiefs games nearly tripled, and overall NFL ratings rose 7 per cent for the 2023 season.
但是當晚最大的贏家是美國國家橄欖球聯盟(NFL)，從各個方面來看，美國國家橄欖球聯盟是美國最偉大的統一現場娛樂巨擘。當斯威夫特開始到現場觀看今年的比賽時，這個聯盟得到了一份巨大的禮物：一些堪薩斯城酋長隊的比賽門票銷售額幾乎翻了兩番，而整個2023賽季的美國國家橄欖球聯盟收視率上升了7%。
It’s great news for the NFL, but the most powerful sports league in the richest country in the world should not be dependent upon the whims of a pop star’s social life to develop a deeper relationship with female fans.
這對於美國國家橄欖球聯盟來說是個好訊息，但是作爲世界上最富有的國家中最強大的體育聯盟，它不應該依賴於一位流行歌星的社交生活來與女性球迷建立更深入的關係。
The millions of young women in Swift’s fan base are of great benefit to the NFL: of the roughly 58 per cent of Americans who watch football each week, three-quarters are men over 50, according to a 2023 study by SponsorPulse.
斯威夫特的數百萬年輕女性粉絲對美國國家橄欖球聯盟來說是巨大的利益：根據SponsorPulse 2023年的一項研究，每週觀看橄欖球比賽的美國人中，大約58%是男性，其中四分之三年齡超過50歲。
Despite conspiracy rumours to the contrary, NFL leaders have admitted that the Taylor television traffic is just a happy accident. Roger Goodell, the league’s commissioner, told reporters last week that the NFL wasn’t clever enough to devise the Swift-Kelce romance even if they tried.
儘管有關陰謀的謠言不絕於耳，美國國家橄欖球聯盟的領導人承認泰勒帶來的電視流量只是一個巧合。該聯盟的主席羅傑•古德爾(Roger Goodell)上週告訴記者，即使他們嘗試，美國國家橄欖球聯盟也不夠聰明來設計斯威夫特-凱爾斯的戀情。
“I don’t think I’m that good of a scripter, or anybody on our staff,” he said. “Taylor is obviously a dynamo. Everything she touches, there are people following, so we count ourselves fortunate, we welcome it.”
「我不認爲我是一個很好的編劇，或者我們團隊中的任何人，」他說。「泰勒顯然是一個活力四溢的人。她觸碰的一切都有人追隨，所以我們覺得很幸運，我們歡迎這一切。」
Sports fans who arrived in Las Vegas last week ahead of the Super Bowl shared with me their reflections on what’s working — and not — for female audiences. Across the board, they said, they enjoy the interpersonal stories in sport.
上週抵達拉斯維加斯參加超級碗(Super Bowl)的體育迷與我分享了他們對於女性觀衆的感受，他們一致表示，他們喜歡體育運動中的人際故事。
“It’s all about how the team is functioning together,” says Lori Haddock, 55, a San Francisco 49ers fan from Omaha. “Football is a family thing to do . . . especially if you have something that you can watch together, that is so competitive and so fun.”
「關鍵在於團隊的協作。」來自奧馬哈的舊金山49人的球迷洛裏•哈多克(Lori Haddock)說道。「橄欖球是一項全家人一起做的事情...尤其是如果你有一些可以一起觀看的東西，那就是如此具有競爭力和樂趣。」
Like Swift, Haddock got into football through the relationships in her life: first watching Kansas City Chiefs games growing up with her father, and later switching allegiances to the 49ers when she met her husband. She says her daughter never caught the football bug growing up, but now aged 28, she’s recently embraced watching the sport with her partner.
和斯威夫特一樣，哈多克透過她生活中的人際關係接觸到橄欖球：首先是和父親一起觀看堪薩斯城酋長隊的比賽，後來在遇到丈夫後改爲支援49人隊。她說她的女兒在成長過程中從未對橄欖球產生興趣，但現在28歲的她最近開始和她的伴侶一起觀看這項運動。
Kiah Cresser, 27, and Ben Mathiou, 28, travelled to Vegas from Australia’s Gold Coast to attend their first Super Bowl after Mathiou, a professional rugby player, scored tickets a year ago. Cresser, dressed fashionably in a trenchcoat and knitted caramel top, tells me she wasn’t much of a sports fan until the Swift-Kelce relationship blossomed. “It’s a love story, how can you resist that?” she says.
27歲的凱亞•克雷瑟(Kiah Cresser)和28歲的本•馬蒂歐(Ben Mathiou)從澳洲的黃金海岸(Gold Coast)來到拉斯維加斯參加他們的第一次超級碗。一年前，作爲職業橄欖球運動員的馬蒂歐買到了門票。克雷瑟穿著時尚的風衣和編織的焦糖色上衣，告訴我她之前並不是一個很熱衷於體育的粉絲，直到斯威夫特-凱爾斯的關係開始發展。「這是一個愛情故事，你怎麼能抵擋得住呢？」她說。
As a result, she consumes NFL stories on TikTok, and says she will probably stay invested in the Chiefs regardless of whether Swift and Kelce stay together. Her primary interest, she says, is the cast of characters in and around the game, including quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany. “It’s not really anything that the NFL is doing specifically,” she adds.
因此，她在TikTok上關注美國國家橄欖球聯盟的故事，並表示無論斯威夫特和凱爾斯是否在一起，她都可能繼續支援堪薩斯城酋長隊。她說，她主要關注比賽中和周圍的角色，包括四分衛帕特里克•馬洪斯和他的妻子布列塔尼。「這與美國國家橄欖球聯盟特別做的事情無關，」她補充道。
To be sure, the league is making an effort to develop fan interest among women; last year, flag football — a non-tackle version of the game open to all genders — was introduced as a high school sport in the state of California, in advance of the sport’s inclusion in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, thanks to some persuasion by the NFL. If women have an opportunity to play the game, the thinking goes, it will further endear football to them for life.
可以肯定的是，聯盟正在努力培養女性球迷的興趣；去年，在美國國家橄欖球聯盟的一些勸說下，在2028年洛杉磯夏季奧運會之前，腰旗橄欖球（一種對所有性別開放的不允許身體衝撞版本的比賽）在加利福尼亞州被引入爲一項高中運動。人們認爲，如果女性有機會踢橄欖球，這將進一步使橄欖球終身受到她們的喜愛。
Such a strategy may pay off in the long run. In the meantime, American football is relying on images of Swift having the time of her life in her stadium box, high-fiving family members and cheering with her girlfriends. The message is a quietly revelatory one for some women: this is a space for your entertainment, too.
這樣的策略從長遠來看可能會取得成功。與此同時，橄欖球依靠斯威夫特在她的包廂裏盡情享受時光、與家人擊掌、與閨蜜們歡呼的形象。這條資訊對一些女性來說是一條悄悄的啓示：這也是一個娛樂的空間。