NHL Team Solves Its Taylor Swift 'Curse'

LA Kings cover up banner of the star in Staples Center that fans think is causing team to lose
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 14, 2019 7:46 AM CDT
NHL Team Solves Its Taylor Swift 'Curse'
In this Aug. 26, 2019, file photo, Taylor Swift arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards in Newark, NJ.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

They can't shake it off, and they won't take it down, but they can cover it up. The latter is what management for the Los Angeles Kings has done, and will continue to do, during home games to deal with a banner of Taylor Swift that hangs in the Staples Center, because fans apparently think it has cursed the team, the New York Post reports. Fans "have made it clear that the banner shouldn't be part of their Kings game experience," a Kings exec tells the Los Angeles Times, adding that a bond with fans is "our highest priority" and that "we ... see it as an opportunity to show our fans that we hear them."

Suspicion swirling around the pop star's "most sold-out performances" banner is based on the Kings not earning a playoff series win since 2015, when the banner was first raised, and that last season's record was abysmal—a sudden turn of events after recent Stanley Cup wins (in 2012 and 2014) and a move to the conference finals in 2013. Adding to the lore is the fact that on Saturday, the first night the banner was hidden, the Kings won their home opener against the Nashville Predators 7-4. "We are undefeated when the Taylor Swift banner is covered up!" the team's mascot tweeted on Sunday. Swift, meanwhile, hasn't performed at the venue since August 2015, per USA Today. (More Taylor Swift stories.)

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