Travis and Jason Kelce aim to break podcasting world record belonging to Quebec comedian Mike Ward

Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce on March 5, 2024 (Sue Ogrocki/The Associated Press) / Mike Ward on Dec. 8, 2019. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Football stars and podcasters Travis and Jason Kelce are looking to break a world record belonging to Quebec comedian Mike Ward.

On the latest episode of their popular and award-winning podcast New Heights, the famous brothers and NFL athletes said they'll be hosting a live podcast taping at their alma mater, the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.

The taping will take place on April 11 at Nippert Stadium, where they both played for the Bearcats.

"We also got informed that we could be breaking a world record – a Guinness Book World Record here – for ticket sales, ladies and gentlemen," said Travis Kelce, who plays tight end for Super Bowl winners the Kansas City Chiefs. He's also dating pop superstar Taylor Swift (as if you didn't know).

"The current Guinness World Record for most tickets sold for a live podcast belongs to the Canadian comedian Mike Ward," he said. "He had an audience of 20,000 – basically just under 21,000 – in Montreal in July of 2022."

"Let's see what happens," responded Jason Kelce, who recently announced his retirement from the NFL after 13 years with the Philadelphia Eagles.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the most tickets sold for a podcast recording is 20,986 and was achieved by Mike Ward in Montreal, on July 22, 2022. To celebrate the podcast's 10th anniversary, Ward put on a live taping of Mike Ward Sous Écoute at the Bell Centre.

New Heights is currently the #21 most popular podcast in the United States on Spotify, and has 2.3 million subscribers and more than 700 million video views on YouTube. It also won iHeartRadio Podcast of the Year earlier this month.

Mike Ward Sous écoute has 143,000 subscribers on YouTube and according to his site, the podcast has 125 million views or downloads.

Ward was at the centre of a 13-year legal saga that took him all the way to the Supreme Court. The case dealt with issues such as freedom of expression and defamation surrounding a joke in his act about a boy with a rare disability. The case was dropped by plaintiff Jeremy Gabriel last year.