Super Bowl CFO Q&A: AI, risk management, enjoying the moment

Dan Crumb, CPA (inactive), CGMA, is a repeat guest on the JofA podcast, because, as CFO and executive vice president of the Kansas City Chiefs, his team is back in the Super Bowl for the second year in a row and the fourth time in five seasons.

It’s a run he’d like to see continue and one that has presented the franchise with expanded revenue opportunities.

In this episode, Crumb discusses the NFL’s first online-only playoff game, how the team’s finance function uses artificial intelligence (AI), and how he maintains balance in his life. And, of course, we asked him about Taylor Swift.

Super Bowl LVIII is Sunday in Las Vegas.

Below are Crumb’s previous podcast interviews:

Journal of Accountancy episode in February 2023

FM episode in February 2020

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• Steps taken to guide fans on staying warm during a recent game that was the coldest in stadium history.
• Some of the AI-aided ways the franchise learns about fan demographics and attendance.
• The impact of the team’s recent success on season-ticket renewals.
• How Crumb addresses his spiritual, physical, and mental health.
• A quick franchise history lesson — and why he tells staff to “enjoy the moment.”
• His thoughts on suggesting a play to coach Andy Reid.

Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:

— To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.

Transcript

Neil Amato: Hello and welcome to a special Super Bowl edition of the Journal of Accountancy podcast. This is Neil Amato with the JofA. I will not be telling you the story today of the time I turned down a chance to attend the Super Bowl, but I will be talking to the CFO and executive vice president of the Super Bowl-bound Kansas City Chiefs.

His name is Dan Crumb. Dan, this does not get old for us, having you back on the show, and I’m sure it doesn’t get old for you — this early February conversation. It’s become a tradition. First, thanks for taking time in a busy time to be with us on the JofA podcast.

Dan Crumb: Neil, thank you very much for having me back on, and I hope it’s a tradition that can continue for many years to come, but it never does get old, and each Super Bowl has been just as exciting as the next.

There’s so much that goes into it and so much excitement. I’ll tell you this, it’s the fastest two weeks of your life. When you go from conference championship to Super Bowl Sunday, it’s the fastest two weeks. It just goes so quickly. There’s so much to do and so much preparation and execution, but never gets old.

Amato: I’m sure it does not. I’m going to go back to a few weeks ago. Tell me what this means for the franchise: Jan. 14, your playoff victory over the Miami Dolphins, was the most streamed live event in U.S. history. What does that mean to you?

Crumb: Yeah, well, first, such a unique opportunity to be the first NFL playoff game that was air streaming only. Now, I’ll clarify that by saying here at our local market, it was put on traditional, over-the-air TV.

It was an amazing opportunity for us. I think what you see is it’s the direction of the future. There’s just so much more that’s live streaming. I think it really speaks to the NFL’s position and the Chiefs’ that we helped deliver such high marks, and it was the most streamed event in U.S. history.

I feel like it was something that we were very proud to be a part of. It’s a unique opportunity, and I think that it really was a great proof of concept of does this work? Is streaming really the direction things are headed? When you get 28 million viewers, I think it shows that it’s certainly the direction people are headed. It’s a bigger strategic move for the NFL and for our sport. Because, when you think about it, you look at traditional, over-the-air TV, you’ve got 338 million Americans that could potentially watch the games.

When you go to that streaming platform, now you have the opportunity to touch 8 billion people on the planet. It’s really a great move and great positioning and direction for the league and for our sport.

Amato: In addition to the publicity angle of that night, from an event management/risk management perspective, which is a topic that you’ve discussed with me in the past, I believe at conferences in the past. That game was one of the coldest in NFL history. So, for fans, for people in the building that night, what steps does the franchise take when the conditions are that severe?

Crumb: Sure. Great question, Neil. You’re right, it was definitely one of the coldest games in NFL history. I think it was the fourth coldest. It was the coldest game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium history. We do a lot of preparation for this, and we knew that it was going to be a situation that we had to really be ahead of. Putting all of our plans and putting everything in place to make sure that our fans, No. 1, are safe and that they have a way to warm up. To do that, we had warming stations out in the parking lots.

We actually have a concept that’s called the tailgate suite, which is a climate-controlled suite that holds up to 20 people. They can tailgate out in the parking lot, and it’s self-contained. We actually turn those into warming stations and let fans go into those.

We also had warming stations throughout the building and the stadium and the concourses where they could go warm up. We had hot chocolate at every concession stand so that people could warm up. In addition to hot chocolate, we also ramp up the warm food, like the chicken tenders and french fries, things like that, that are warming.

We allow our fans to come in and bring cardboard, so they can put that small piece of cardboard down to have a layer of insulation between their feet and the concrete that they’re standing and sitting. We also allow fans to bring in blankets.

We sent out public announcements and emails to our fans just to let them know it’s going to be bitter cold, dress in layers, please make sure that you’re staying hydrated. Not just warm beverages but cold — water as well, because you don’t want to dehydrate and have other issues.

We did a lot of messaging ahead of time. Plus, we had all of our team merchandise stores open, and we staff those up with extra blankets and coats and hats and gloves so that fans could be warm. We also, at our Fans First areas, had hand warmers. If fans were getting too cold, they could come over, and we would make sure that they had hand warmers. We just made sure that we did everything we could do, get the messaging out, but then have the right supplies, have the right food and beverage to make sure people are warm and the warming stations.

Amato: Let’s shift to the finance function and how it is adapting moving forward. How does the Chiefs’ finance function use emerging technology, including but not necessarily limited to Gen AI?

Crumb: Sure. Within our finance function we have our data analytics function. We do a lot of work with data and big data. There’s a couple of things that I would point out there as far as really looking at how we utilize AI.

One thing is we have a system in our building now. It’s called CrowdIQ, which has two cameras that are placed at either side of the stadium, right near the 50-yard line. What that does is it takes images of all of our fans that are in the seating bowl. It takes images every so often.

It bounces all of those images against a database of hundreds of thousands of photographs of every age range, male, female, so that when it takes those photos of our fans, it matches it up against that database of photos. It doesn’t have anybody’s personal information or names or anything like that. It is taking those photos and saying, your building is 50% male, 50% female. Your building average age is 36. You have this many Gen Z females, this many Gen Z males.

It really slices and gives us a rich, really deep feel and data for what fans are coming into this building, and how many fans that, for instance, buy season tickets, attend all of our games or most of our games. It tells us that because it takes those photos and, if we see through every game the same people sitting in that seat, then we know that the propensity for them to renew is pretty high. Whereas if we see different people, we know that that fan is probably transferring or forwarding their tickets to somebody else, so maybe that’s a fan that we have do a little bit more to get them to renew.

It tells us a lot about our fans’ demographics and helps us to tailor our efforts in season-ticket sales, etc. It helps us with our corporate partners because they look for certain demographics that they want to advertise their products and services to. Now we have that data that’s very strong, and we’ve got plenty of information that we can share with them to say, here are the fans, here’s the demographic breakdown of our fans. So it helps us in a lot of ways.

Then there’s also the more traditional ways that we’re using AI to just be really efficient about how we process payments, how we make sure that invoices are correct, how we make sure that all the information is there, how we make sure that we’re paying on time, we’re taking advantage of discounts, we’re doing things like that.

On one side, you’ve got how we’re using AI to be very efficient in our processing, and then on the other side, we have AI to help us to understand more about our fans, and to help our corporate partners and our ticket sales, etc.

And more and more, even in just routine automation of forms for different authorizations such as wire transfers, such as unbudgeted capital requests, things like that. We have all those set up in automated workflows, and we’re actually able to check all the information as it goes through the process to make sure that it’s correct, and that there aren’t any fields that are left open that we have to go back and rework and things like that.

Amato: We’ll get back to how the demographics of your fan base might be changing in a bit, but I will make the prediction that as long as your team is on this Super Bowl streak that it’s on, there’s going to be fewer fans who are wanting to give up those seats because they want to see a winning team. That’s my guess. I don’t know if that’s what you’re seeing early on, but I would think they’d want to keep coming back.

Crumb: Very true, Neil. We’ve seen, typically, these past few years during this run, we’ve had at least a 95% renewal rate of our season tickets, and it’s been holding pretty steady. In fact, it’s been going up a little bit. We find that we have season-ticket members that are very loyal, and we’ve got such loyal fans here in Kansas City that they’ve been with us through the highs, the lows. I’m just so happy that we’re able to give them a great team on the field and we’re competing for championships for our team, for our organization, and for our city and region and all of Chiefs kingdom. I’m just really happy that we’re in the position we’re in now.

Amato: In early 2020 we had you on our FM podcast, Financial Management magazine podcast, and you talked about the importance of balancing personal and professional life. It’s now 2024. With extended regular seasons and obviously extended playoff runs for your franchise, how do you make sure you don’t, to use a phrase from that episode, “lose your identity to the job”?

Crumb: The thing that I do most, I’m very grounded in my faith. I keep three things to stay grounded and not lose the identity is stay in shape physically, mentally, and spiritually. I try to do all three of those and make sure that I try to put as much into each of those.

But some of the things I do just to make sure that I’m who I am and not just, “He’s the Chiefs’ CFO, that’s all he does.” I’ll do things that I’ve done for many years, like, I enjoy horseback riding. There’s a stable near my house. I’ll go down there at various times, even while we’re in these runs, I’ll go and ride horses. That’s a way for me to get away from it and just also think about, this is something I enjoy doing as well. Spending time with family and friends is another way that I really stay grounded.

Then also, I try to read as much as possible. I read different books, American history, I read some fiction books. I try to read a mix just to, in other ways, keep exercising not only physically but mentally. I do a lot of things to try to make all that work. The downside of trying to do a lot of things is you don’t get a lot of time to sleep. That’s one thing that I’m worst at is getting enough sleep.

Amato: Then also, though, you have told your staff, and I take it you’ll even do some of this as well. When you’re in this run of sustained success, you do have to stop and maybe not do other things and enjoy the moment of where this franchise is, the plane it’s on of getting to four Super Bowls in the last five seasons.

Crumb: Absolutely. Neil, I used to focus that statement on more of our new people that haven’t been in a run like this. But I find that as time goes on, I’m spending time telling everybody, just take time, this is a very busy time for us, but take time here, there, whatever. Even if it’s just a couple of minutes where you just sit down and look out the window at the practice field or at the stadium, and just realize how special this time is and really enjoy this, live in this moment because it’s very special.

Before 2020, 1970 was the last time this franchise had been to a Super Bowl, so it was 50 years. At that time, it was really important for me to get that message out because you just never know when you’re going back. Now, even though we’ve been back, I feel like they never get old, going to the Super Bowl. I feel like it’s so important to take that time and realize how special this is and realize that all of us in this organization are one of 32 in the world.

There’s only 32 of these teams in the world, and right now there’s only two that are still left playing the final game of the season.

Those things and just the character and the organization, the tradition of this organization, are just so many reasons why we should just take this time, be thankful, understand how special it is, and just appreciate and be grateful for the opportunity. I’ve worked on the corporate private industry side just as long as I’ve been working in professional sports, and so I’ve seen it from both sides. It’s even more important and it’s even more special to me because I’ve seen it on both sides.

I’ve also seen it when we had a team with a losing record, and the playoffs weren’t even in the picture. I have some perspective to share with people in this organization, and I just want to make sure that everybody just takes the time to understand how special this is and enjoy it. Because they’ve all worked hard for it; they’ve all worked hard to get us here. I want to make sure that they understand that and they’re such a big part of this and it doesn’t happen without them. So you should take some time off and understand how special it is.

Amato: In the show notes for this episode, for the listeners, we will post the links to those previous episodes so you can hear some of the ways that finance has helped the team over the years and continues to. We mentioned the popularity of the NFL, especially in the playoffs. We talked about the streaming numbers for that game.

The popularity has grown this year, and especially as it relates to the Chiefs, I don’t think we need the data sources, but the data sources are out there that show viewership is up among women. Jersey sales, especially that No. 87 Travis Kelce jersey, they’re up. I think everyone knows where I’m going with this: Taylor Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs. What’s the financial impact of Taylor Swift’s presence at games for the franchise?

Crumb: Well, I’ll start off by saying, Neil, that, first, we’re very happy for Travis and Taylor because it’s really neat. They’re good people, we’re happy for them, and we’ve been very respectful of their relationship and what’s happening here. As far as a financial impact, it’s hard to say for us that there’s a direct financial impact, maybe externally in merchandise and things of that nature. But I think for the league overall, in general, and for the sport of football, her passion for football and her involvement now has brought a new demographic, or not so much a new demographic, but brought more of that demographic into following our sport and being fans of football.

We’re very appreciative of that impact and that effect because that really is the future of our sport, is you’re seeing more and more females playing football. In fact, we have a girl that works in our community outreach department that played professional football. She was a kicker on a women’s professional team. We’re seeing flag football, in particular, is becoming a sanctioned NCAA sport now, and there’s more people playing it. It’s going to be an Olympic sport in Los Angeles 2028.

Having that younger demographic getting involved in the sport and being fans and playing whether it’s flag football or tackle football, we’re just really pleased because that sets up well for future generations of NFL football fans.

Amato: Now, I assume at games, Dan, you have an all-access pass. I have to ask: Have you made your way over to the Kelce family and friends section of the stadium?

Crumb: No. That relates back [to] I’ve been very respectful, as we all have. We’ve been really respectful of their privacy and their relationship because we’re all so happy for them. We were very fortunate. We had her perform here last July. We had her for two nights, and her show was amazing. It was a lot of fun. We were a sold-out show, and we had literally people from all over the world coming into Kansas City to see Taylor Swift perform. It was such an exciting time for our city and our region.

She’s absolutely just an amazing performer and so talented. I don’t know how she’s up on stage for more than three hours and she doesn’t look like she’s winded and she looks like she could go on for another three hours. She’s just an amazing performer, and we were blessed to have her. She’s played at our stadium. That’s the third time she’s played here over the past decade or so, and she’s an amazing performer. We’re just so pleased to see Travis and Taylor having the relationship that they do.

Amato: We talked about it before. This is the team’s fourth trip to the Super Bowl in the past five seasons. What’s the impact of that sustained run of success from a financial standpoint?

Crumb: I think what you see and what we’ve seen is that you’ve got different levels and different buckets that it really impacts. Obviously, as I said earlier, your season-ticket renewals are higher. You’ve got that piece. It opens up our corporate partnership potentials and opportunities because we have more corporations that want to be affiliated with our brand.

We’ve always talked about being prepared for success here. We’re a very planning-oriented organization. When we became successful back in 2020 and this run we’ve been on, we looked for additional ways, we were already scouting additional ways to enhance our revenue streams, and looking at what our fans wanted.

They wanted more premium, all-inclusive food and beverage areas, clubs. We’ve created six new clubs throughout the stadium for our fans to enjoy food and beverage. This year we added a speakeasy. Going back into Kansas City history, speakeasies during Prohibition were a very big thing here in Kansas City. We created a speakeasy. It’s called The Huddle. Of all things, it’s called The Huddle, and just like all of our other concepts, has sold out very quickly. All memberships have sold out.

We’ve looked at that planning for success, being prepared. We’ve created these new concepts for our fans. We have deeper engagement with our season-ticket members, deeper engagement with our corporate partners. We see all those revenue streams either being solidified or growing because of the success of the team and the success of this organization. Everybody involved has had that preparation-for-success mentality.

When we hit this stretch that we’re in, we were doing the things before because we were always working at it and had a strategy and planned for it. When we got here, now you’ve got the plans go out and execute. That’s what we’ve been doing, is executing. But there is a financial lift when you’re on a successful run like this. They don’t last forever, and so you’ve got to be prepared for the roller coaster.

Amato: Now, I have asked you on the JofA podcast before if you had forwarded any play-calling ideas to coach Andy Reid. Have you made any headway on that in the past year? I’m hoping you have.

Crumb: Neil, I would love to be able to have that play that I could send to him. I haven’t come up with it yet. I think it’s something that I’m going to have to put more time in it because Andy is so creative and he just has such a playbook. He’s got over 700 plays, you know, different variations. It’s going to have to be a blockbuster of a play to get into that playbook because that thing is so creative, and he’s got so many more brighter, higher-football-IQ people than me working on it. One of these days, I might break through and come up with that play, but I just have not found it yet.

Amato: You’ll get there. We’re recording on Friday, Feb. 2, nine days before the Super Bowl. We plan to publish the episode during Super Bowl week. Dan, as you look ahead to the game in Las Vegas, one, are you planning to attend? And two, any closing thoughts for the listeners today?

Crumb: Yep, I’ll definitely be there. My standard rule of thumb is I go to the Super Bowl when the Chiefs are playing in it. If the Chiefs aren’t playing in it, I don’t want to go. I want to go when our team’s in it. I’m so excited. I feel that, as far as where we are as a franchise and an organization, these are just some of the best years in its history. I’m proud to be working alongside all the great people in this organization that I work alongside of and for the Hunt family.

It’s just a real privilege and a blessing to be part of this. I take the time myself to just look out the window and look at the stadium and the practice fields and see our guys out there working so hard. It’s such motivation for me and for my co-workers that we’re just excited fo this next week. I hope it goes really fast so that we can get down to Las Vegas and enjoy the weekend and just being part of the Super Bowl. Just excited to be representing the AFC and representing the NFL in this game. I’m just looking forward to it.

Amato: Dan Crumb, thanks very much.

Crumb: Thank you so much, Neil. Thank you for having me on your show. I always enjoy it, and it’s always great to catch up with you.