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The Eras Tour Effect: A dollar-by-dollar breakdown of Taylor Swift fervour in Toronto

Including $121,000 luxury-suite tickets and a $1,000 private performance by the city’s top Swift impersonator

By Courtney Shea
The Eras Tour Effect: A dollar-by-dollar breakdown of Taylor Swift fervour in Toronto

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has set records across the globe by becoming the first-ever billion-dollar concert tour, generating the most profit for single-day ticket sales of a tour movie and being the concert most likely to feature a cameo by a recent Super Bowl champ. When the Tortured Poets Department auteur touches down in Toronto for a six-show stint in November, it will be the highest-grossing live music event in our city’s history—an impressive feat considering it almost didn’t happen at all.

When Swift first announced the final leg of her Eras Tour in spring 2023, it looked like the Great White North was getting a great big brush-off. Cue the desperate outcries from Canadian fans, a plea from Justin Trudeau on X, and some behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing that convinced Swift to change course, prompting what may be the only supply-and-demand narrative more out of whack than Toronto’s rental market.

An estimated 31 million people attempted to join the virtual wait list for tickets—ten times the population of the entire city. And that’s just one of many indicators of the economic boom Swift is bringing to Toronto, which some estimates are putting as high as $700 million. Here’s our breakdown of Toronto’s Swiftonomics.


 

$19.99

Ticket price to see Toronto’s largest drop-in vocal troupe, Choir! Choir! Choir!, perform the hits from various Swift albums at six era-specific live shows where audience members become part of the act.

$28

The cost of half a dozen Swift-inspired donuts at Maverick’s, a boutique doughnut shop in Oakville that is creating custom confections to honour her catalogue. It’s not exactly walking distance from the concerts, but the tourism organization Visit Oakville is hoping hard-core Swifties will be willing to ride the GO train to visit a town-wide Taylor-ification, which will include everything from baked goods to silent disco nights to pottery classes.

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$55

Can’t afford to pay quadruple digits for concert tickets? The Metro Convention Centre is hosting Taylgate parties to coincide with each Toronto concert date, featuring music, drinks, friendship bracelets and even a “parents bar” for the moms and dads killing time while their teens are at the Rogers Centre. These booster events are inspired by American football pre-parties—only it’s Toronto in November, so parking lots weren’t an option.

$350

The average daily rate for short-term rental properties during the Toronto Eras Tour dates, up 70 per cent from the same time last year. Data from Airbnb shows that searches for Toronto locations during the last two weeks of November were up 1,200 per cent, meaning the chances of finding a blank space are slim.

$1,000

A four-song set by TayBobo, Toronto’s top Taylor Swift drag impersonator, who has seen her schedule fill up considerably over the past few months. Book her for a private show or catch her full Eras Tour performance—40 songs, two backup dancers and nine costume changes.

$1,800

The amount Ontario mom Dana Kaputo lost after paying for two Toronto Eras Tour tickets that she found via a friend of a co-worker on Facebook. It turns out that the friend’s account had been hacked by a scammer who disappeared once the money was sent. Fraudulent Eras Tour tickets have become such a problem that the Toronto police’s financial crimes unit launched a #Don’tGetScammed campaign back in July.

$5,000

A night in the Taylor, a newly redecorated Swift-themed suite at Bisha Hotel, including album-inspired wall art and lyrics rendered in neon signage. The luxury boutique location on Blue Jays Way is going all-out, dedicating each floor to a different Era, including a Red floor with tinted lighting and a Lover Lounge where fans can hang out and swap friendship bracelets.

$14,000

The cost associated with turning a two-kilometre strip of Queen West and John Street (the route from Nathan Phillips Square to the Rogers Centre) into Taylor Swift Way for the month of November. Rogers will foot the bill for the 22 celebratory street signs, which will eventually be auctioned off by the Daily Bread Food Bank. The motion for the plan—which also includes lighting up the Toronto sign in Swiftie red—passed 21–1 in city council (The only holdout was Josh Matlow, who may be more of an Olivia Rodrigo guy.)

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$17,500

Swift’s donation to the Toronto Star’s Santa Claus Fund, a charity that provides gifts to underprivileged children over the holidays. The donation came in after the Star’s entertainment columnist Vinay Menon reached out to ask Swift’s team for the superstar’s support. Her donation (the equivalent of $13,000 US, because 13 is her lucky number) was matched by RBC, the official financial services partner of the Canadian stops of the tour, and prompted a wave of support from the wider Swiftie community.

$121,000

The cost for a single ticket to the Rogers Centre’s luxury suite on ticket-resale site SeatGeek. For those who don’t care about high-class seats, the cheapest tickets currently available on secondary platforms are a little over $2,000. Ticket sales for the six nights of performances are expected to generate around $120 million.

$125,000

The total purse at this year’s Toronto Cup, where Swift Delivery (a racehorse co-owned by Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and current Swift beau Travis Kelce) was the odds favourite to win. The horse finished second, earning 20 per cent of the prize money, but Woodbine officials confirmed that the same fandom bringing new crowds to football stadiums had boosted their event’s attendance numbers.

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