Why Taylor Swift is not coming to Birmingham on the Eras Tour

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — From Garth Brooks to Janet Jackson, Birmingham has made a big effort to revamp its entertainment scene over the last few years, but a few A-listers still seem to leave the Magic City off their list of tour dates.

To the great disappointment of local Swifties, superstar Taylor Swift is one of them. She is not coming to Birmingham or the state of Alabama at all on her current Eras Tour. However, according to CBS42 entertainment reporter Jimmy Carter who has a background in the music industry, there’s a good reason for that.

“We have a stadium that’s very nice, and it handled the Garth Brooks show very well, but it’s still an uncharted territory for promoters,” Carter said.

Carter explained how the fairly new Protective Stadium is still proving itself in the national entertainment space, while the BJCC is simply not big enough to handle the demand for huge stars’ fans.

“You’re dealing with big money. Taylor Swift is seating 70,000 people a night … You’d have to sell out Protective Stadium five times,” Carter said.

However, Birmingham City Councilor and the chairman of economic development and tourism Hunter Williams said the Magic City has tried to change that by making huge investments in entertainment infrastructure

“We have come so far in the past three to five years where the city traditionally just really had been skipped over in a big way,” Williams said.

He believes the upcoming amphitheater in North Birmingham will help too.

‘If we can keep that momentum going, I am very confident that we eventually can have those A plus plus list performers in the Magic City,” Williams said.

In the meantime, he has a message for Taylor Swift.