NYC bar owner says Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding closures cost him thousands in lost business

A New York City bar owner says the street closures surrounding Taylor Swift’s and Travis Kelce’s wedding week cost his business thousands of dollars, after the NYPD implemented extensive street closures around Madison Square Garden for the couple’s nuptials.

Michael O’Brien, who co-owns O’Brien’s Bar & Grill on 31st Street directly across from the arena, said the bar typically draws up to 150 patrons on a given night but saw a fraction of that as barricades went up ahead of the Friday ceremony. “You’ve wronged us; make it right,” Mr. O’Brien said in an interview with Us Weekly. 

Mr. O’Brien said he reached out to the city, the mayor’s office, the NYPD and representatives for both Ms. Swift and Mr. Kelce seeking some form of compensation or accommodation, but received no response. He proposed several alternatives, including renting out the bar to event crews or having the couple buy out the business for the week, according to the interview.

The timing compounded his frustration, Mr. O’Brien said, since the closures overlapped with the Fourth of July holiday, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and World Cup matches drawing tourists to the city — all of which he had expected to boost business.

The bar’s complaints came as the NYPD implemented extensive street closures around Madison Square Garden for the wedding weekend. Starting at 1 p.m. Friday, the department shut Seventh Avenue between 30th and 34th streets to vehicles, along with several cross streets near the arena, and closed pedestrian access on the west side of Seventh Avenue between 31st and 34th streets, according to the department’s published logistics. Access to Penn Station beneath the Garden was also restricted, with commuters directed to alternate entrances. 

City permitting records reviewed by The Associated Press showed the application for the event, filed under the subject line “Wedding Bells Are Ringing,” requested full street closures for Friday and Saturday and was approved by the mayor’s permitting office. The permit outlined a rehearsal dinner for about 100 guests Thursday evening followed by a main event Friday that could run until 4 a.m. Saturday with up to 1,000 guests. Mr. O’Brien, who was also quoted in that report, called the scale of the closures “ridiculous” and suggested the couple “buy out the local businesses instead of having us adversely affected.” 

Ms. Swift and Mr. Kelce did not publicly confirm details of the wedding in advance, and representatives for the couple did not respond to press inquiries about the street closures, according to the AP. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch had acknowledged only that the department was “tracking” an event at the Garden without elaborating.

The couple wed Friday evening at Madison Square Garden in front of roughly 1,000 guests. Ms. Swift, a singer and songwriter, has an estimated net worth of $2 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires tracker.