The Chiefs on Sunday will vie for their third consecutive Super Bowl title against the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans. The winning streak has been a financial boon for the Chiefs, providing funds for capital improvements, such as new seating in the team’s Arrowhead Stadium. In the process, the team has added new revenue streams, such as places in its stadium to host events and more all-inclusive food-and-beverage options for fans.

Crumb talked about his role at the Chiefs during an interview with CFO Journal. Here are condensed and edited excerpts.

Kansas City Chiefs CFO Dan Crumb. Photo: KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

WSJ: What’s your role in managing the team’s salary cap? 

Crumb: We leave the actual salary cap and the roster management to our general manager and his football administration team. We set the budget, and we give them a bucket of money that they get to pick from. How they put the pieces in place and move players around and sign contracts—we leave that up to them.

I’ll say this: Back in [2021], the league entered into a [11-year] contract with all of its national TV broadcast partners. At that same time, we also entered into a collective-bargaining agreement, and that was for 10 years. So we locked in our biggest revenue stream, and we also locked in our biggest expense. It gives us stability as a league and the ability to really project out with some of those big expenses and big revenues with certainty.

WSJ: Around the same time, you signed a 10-year deal worth $500 million with your star quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. 

Crumb: These things were all going on at the same time. We knew we needed to keep Patrick Mahomes, and we wanted to enter into an agreement. We wanted to work with him to make him a Chief for a very long time, and we were successful in doing that and signing him to a long-term agreement.

WSJ: What steps have you taken—particularly given the team’s recent success—to maximize revenue?

Crumb: When we won the Super Bowl back in 2020—that was the first time in 50 years that we had been to the Super Bowl—when we won, we were prepared.

Some of the things that we did as soon as we won, we started making some capital improvements to our stadium, adding new premium spaces. We pulled out all of our seats over a multiyear period. We replaced every seat in the building. We renovated our Hall of Honor. We refurbished our scoreboards and all our video boards.

WSJ: Using revenue that you gained from the team’s exposure? 

Crumb: As we’re building and getting more and more successful, we’re able to sign new corporate partners or take our existing corporate partners up to different, bigger levels. We’re reinvesting that money in our stadium and in our fan experience and game-day experience.

We’re also expanding our footprint. A big endeavor for ours is on the international front. We’re part of the NFL’s Global Markets Program. So we’re doing a lot to expand our presence and our brand internationally, and to expand the NFL’s brand.

On top of that, we’ve also dipped into the film business. This past year, we partnered with Hallmark—which is here in Kansas City—to make a movie called Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.

WSJ: I love this. 

Crumb: It was wonderful. It was a great movie.

WSJ: Was it part of a push to get more women interested in football? 

Crumb: I would say that was part of it. I think the Taylor Swift effect has brought more younger females into the sport. But with Hallmark, we had played a Christmas Day game the year before. We were scheduled to play the Christmas Day game in 2024. It was a perfect partnership—thinking we wanted to be very visible on Christmas.

WSJ: Since you mentioned Taylor Swift—her relationship with Travis Kelce has attracted fans. Has your office put a number on the impact?

Crumb: So we don’t really have a number. There’s not a real hard number or way to measure. What we have seen is, when she really started to come to our games, for the first time we had more Gen Z females than Gen Z males in the building. We’ve seen younger females becoming interested in the sport.

WSJ: The NFL four years ago expanded to 17 games per season. Now there’s talk of moving to 18 games. Just wondering how much extra revenue an additional game brings in for teams? 

Crumb: You do see a lift because you’re taking a preseason game and now that’s becoming a regular-season game that counts. We use dynamic pricing, as we have for a number of years, and so what that helps us to do is to price those games more in line with what market value for a regular-season game is. Because that game before was a preseason game that we would have priced lower.

Our preseason games are very well attended. But when you get to the regular season, your attendance is higher, so that translates into more parking revenue, more concessions and merchandising revenue. So having an extra regular-season game does help us.

WSJ: How much extra revenue? It sounds significant. 

Crumb: Since we’re a privately held organization, we can’t tell you. But we know what it is, and it’s a meaningful number, and it does help. When we went from 16 to 17, definitely we saw a little bit of lift.

WSJ: Jackson County, Mo., last year rejected a measure that would have funded improvements to your stadium. Where does that leave the team? What are you considering next? 

Crumb: We’ve been having productive discussions with the county and also with the state of Missouri. We’ve also had discussions on the Kansas side of the state line. We’re really evaluating both opportunities.

WSJ: Is it a possibility that the team could move to Kansas? 

Crumb: That’s an option. We could build a stadium, which is just right across the state line.

WSJ: Funded by? 

Crumb: A portion of it would be state funding. That would fund some of the construction costs for a new stadium. If we were to stay here, we would do a major renovation to our current stadium. That would have county sales tax funding—the current sales tax would be extended—and also some potential funding from the state. That’s one option. In all scenarios, we’re putting up money as well.

WSJ: What’s your timing? 

Crumb: It would be nice if we’re in a position to make a decision in the next year.

WSJ: How have high interest rates and inflation affected the team’s finances? 

Crumb: The inflationary effects for us have been centered around when we make capital improvements and renovations to our stadium and our facilities, the labor and material costs are all higher and continuing to increase. Ultimately, we are feeling it in those areas.

But we really haven’t felt it on the revenue side because our revenues have continued to increase, and that’s tied to our fan experience, our team on the field. And finding new revenue streams. Making improvements helps us, so while those improvements cost more, they’re generating more revenue for us.

WSJ: So if you put in more premium seats, you can charge more? 

Crumb: We’ve kept our premium seating at the same level, but what we’ve done is just increased more of the all-inclusive food-and-beverage clubs. We just look at every square foot—are we using that square footage as optimally as we can? Are we maximizing that?

When we renovated our Hall of Honor, previously it was just a very static museum. And then we made it more interactive and more video-immersive. But we also made it climate-controlled. So now we can actually host events.

WSJ: Where do you plan to watch the game on Sunday?

Crumb: I’m going to be at the Superdome. Our organization flies all of our full-time staff down to the game. We all get a ticket. I was born and raised in New Orleans, so it’s a homecoming for me.