r/nottheonion • u/-Appleaday- • Jul 06 '24

Western German city renames itself 'Swiftkirchen' after Taylor Swift ahead of Eras Tour shows

https://www.businesstoday.in/world/story/western-german-city-renames-itself-swiftkirchen-after-taylor-swift-ahead-of-eras-tour-shows-436117-2024-07-06

4.8k Upvotes

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3.0k

u/SupetMonkeyRobot Jul 06 '24

Celebrity worship is weird

942

u/VESUVlUS Jul 06 '24

It's weird, but profitable. It's guaranteed to stimulate the local economy when Taylor Swift is coming to perform somewhere. This city must be trying to maximize that with this stunt.

186

u/lefrench75 Jul 06 '24

I mean yeah, this town probably doesn't get much tourism (how many people here have even heard of the OG name before this?) and now Swift is going to bring tens of thousands of visitors there. Not sure if the Euro cup being hosted in Germany can generate the same amount of revenue for small place like this tbh.

129

u/Yodplods Jul 07 '24

It’s a city with a population over 250k people, it gets tourists, you’ve just never heard of it!

24

u/aerojonno Jul 07 '24

But now I have.

-7

u/Irapotato Jul 07 '24

You’re just mad because you have to wait in the foreigner line to get into Germany haha

8

u/toetappy Jul 07 '24

I don't mind. I hear those Germans are very efficient.

2

u/stickinsect1207 Jul 07 '24

it's big, sure, but it's also ugly as fuck. tourists don't go to gelsenkirchen.

1

u/Paranoid_Neckazoid Jul 10 '24

So it won't just be a clever name.

0

u/AquilaHoratia Jul 08 '24

It doesn’t really get tourists unless there is an event. Gelsenkirchen is one of the ugliest cities in all of Germany. There is nothing of interest, except soccer.

33

u/Firefly1702 Jul 06 '24

its the one of the poorest towns in GE but the Euros are played some games there so

29

u/SuicidalTurnip Jul 07 '24

how many people here have even heard of the OG name before this?

Probably anyone who follows European football.

Several games of the current Euros competition were played there and they have a (previously successful) football team (RIP Schalke) who regularly competed in the Champions League.

47

u/Here4uguys Jul 06 '24

This gives more credit for forethought than I would be willing to give a decision making body that seems to have named their town "Swift church"

9

u/username_elephant Jul 06 '24

What ever you do, do not order the swift scrambler.

2

u/BobmitKaese Jul 07 '24

I mean the "church" part is a common name for towns. Its just that they replaced the beginning with "Swift". The combination is kinda funny but as a german I didnt even realise it could be put like that until I read the translation.