No, that wasn’t Taylor Swift at the Sporting KC game. So then ... who was it?

A Taylor Swift fan noted Sunday just how long it’s been since the superstar singer has been in the public eye.

The X account Tan said it’s been eight weeks since Swift was last seen in public, her last Instagram post came more than 16 weeks ago and it’s been 20 weeks since her last tweet.

But some soccer fans thought they caught a glimpse of Swift somewhere she’s not been spotted before: Children’s Mercy Park.

Was that really Swift at Sporting Kansas City’s 2-0 win over St. Louis on Saturday night?

Well ... no (and neither was her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce).

Perhaps it was the excitement of possibly seeing Swift that led fans to mistake her for a lookalike. But being the diligent journalists we are, The Star did reach out to Sporting Kansas City, which did confirm that wasn’t Swift.

Alas, Swift was not in her Soccer Era on Saturday.

That was Kelley Thrasher of Johnson County, a full-time nanny who has become a popular Taylor Swift tribute artist in Kansas City. (The Star profiled her in September.)

And she possibly could have gotten away with being at the game as just another spectator if it hadn’t been for that darn red lipstick.

Thrasher went to the game with a group of women to celebrate her sister-in-law’s birthday.

“She’s a huge Sporting KC fan,” said Thrasher. “I’ve gone with her to a game before.”

Her sister-in-law, Amber Masters, works with the Victory Project, a nonprofit that helps kids with cancer. Victory Project seeks to “make the sport of soccer more accessible for kids with disabilities and kids with limited financial resources,” according to its website.

At every home Sporting KC game since 2018, the Victory Project has honored a child battling cancer with VIP treatment and a meet-up with players.

Saturday’s honoree was 6-year-old Natalie Morss of Olathe, who was diagnosed with cancer when she was 2 months old and is now cancer-free.

Thrasher and her group shared a suite with the family above where the superfans of the Cauldron sit.

Thrasher thinks the hubbub about her being in the stadium started when the team invited their group onto the field before the game.

“There were little boys yelling ‘Taylor Swift’ when we were down there,” she said. “When we were walking back up Amber told them, ‘I’m sorry, it’s not her.’”

But the (wrong) cat was already out of the bag. And some fans mistook Thrasher’s sister-in-law for Swift’s manager, Tree Paine. Both women have red hair, which made the idea of Swift being in the stadium more believable.

When they got back to the suite “people just started gathering below us, behind the Cauldron, and the group just kept growing and they had to get security to clear the area out,” Thrasher said.

“They had to get a security guard to stay outside the suite door, too.

“And then somebody that works for Sporting — obviously, there were whispers going on — came up and said would it be OK if we put a Taylor song on and show you on the Jumbotron?’’

When Thrasher appears at private parties and at public events in full-on Taylor Swift mode, she wears red lipstick, the superstar’s signature lip color.

Thrasher had not planned on wearing the striking lipstick to the game. She had just appeared as Taylor the night before at a hockey game in Bloomington, Illinois, where she did the puck drop and tried to score a goal from center ice.

She said she wasn’t really wanting to do the Taylor thing again on Saturday night. She just wanted to watch the game and have fun.

But her sister-in-law told her that Natalie knew a Taylor Swift lookalike would be at the game, “so she wanted me to wear the red lips,” Thrasher said. “But then the little girl left early and I didn’t even get to see her.

“It was so sad. That was the whole reason I put on the red lips and how all of this was happening.”

Thrasher posed for photos with people in a nearby suite and even the guys who did the flyover before the game.

One of them told her that he wasn’t sure if he was meeting the real Taylor Swift or not. “So I tried to play it cool,” he told Thrasher.

The women had fun laughing at the comments and speculation that sprouted on social media.

“Tree Paine is next to her, is her manager.”

“My friend was in the suite next to her. He said it was definitely her.”

“Were they inside? It was really cold.

“Way to support. Go Taylor.”

“That’s not her.”

Saturday night was by far the biggest ruckus Thrasher has sparked by being mistaken for Swift in public, Thrasher said.

She told her sister-in-law: “Amber, this is all your fault.”

Her next public appearance as Swift, intentionally, will be at a Kansas City Monarchs game on May 31 — Kansas Swifties Monarchs Night at Legends Field, located not far from Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.

This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 12:01 PM.