Fan footprint goes red: KC-built tech estimates crowd size at Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade

EB Systems is quickly becoming a go-to tool for tracking crowds, shared Jonathan Ruiz, with the Kansas City startup’s technology most recently estimating nearly 1 million people gathered for the Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade.

Beacons placed by EB Systems indicated a crowd of about 924,435 attended the sprawling Feb. 14 parade and rally at Union Station, said Ruiz, co-founder and CEO of EB Systems, which uses mobile apps, proximity-based sensors and wearable Bluetooth devices to create real-time location, reporting, and alerting systems

Image courtesy of EB Systems

“It’s just business as usual for us,” he added. “We get the call anytime there’s a massive event and this is the biggest one.”

EB Systems was named one of Startland News Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2024.

According to EB Systems data from the Feb. 14 event, the average time spent in the parade area was two hours and 14 minutes.

Crowds quickly dispersed from the Union Station area once a shooting shortly after the rally turned the celebration into a scene of panic and heartbreak. Because the investigation is ongoing, Ruiz wasn’t able to say if the beacon technology aided in the apprehension of men now charged in the incident.

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For studying the overall Chiefs parade, Ruiz and co-founder Brendan Waters worked with the city of KCMO and the Kansas City Downtown Council to use their electronic beacon technology to estimate overall attendance. They previously used the tech to determine crowd size for the Chiefs Super Bowl parade in 2020 and shared it with the city.

“This time, the (Kansas City) city manager’s office reached out to us directly,” Ruiz explained. “We have people coming to us now. It’s great that we’re becoming synonymous with, ‘Hey, we have a big event and we need to know how many people showed up. We gotta call the beacon guys. We’ve got to call the EB Systems guys.’ So that was exciting for us.”

A Chiefs parade bus drives past fans gather outside the T-Mobile Center in the Power & Light District in downtown Kansas City; photo by Austin Barnes, Startland News

The duo installed their electronic beacons in key locations around the rally at Union Station, plus around the T-Mobile Center and the Crown Center Link walkway.

“This [parade], we’re actually more focused on the rally versus the entire footprint,” Ruiz noted before the event. 

“From there, we’ll focus on average time spent in the area,” he continued, “which area has the most cross traffic. We’re also focused on intersections that they have blocked off for pedestrians — just to see where people tend to come from — and which areas maybe need more information, as far as telling people where they need to go versus people congregating at one access point.”

Brendan Waters and Jonathan Ruiz, EB Systems

Chiefs fans walk pass Messenger Coffee in the Crossroads Arts District during the team’s 2024 victory parade; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

The EB Systems team is also working with several small businesses — like Messenger Coffee, which is along the parade route on Grand Boulevard — to track how the larger crowds affect their retail operations, he said.

“What does this traffic do when we have massive events like this?” he explained. “Does it correlate to more sales?”

Kansas City has been the perfect place for the co-founders to launch EB Systems, Ruiz said, noting they’ve been able to track crowds at three Super Bowl victory parades, the NFL Draft, and will have the chance at Copa America games this summer and World Cup games in 2026.

From the archives: Crowd counting a touchdown for KC’s EB Systems

“It’s crazy,” he explained. “I don’t think I could say this even a year ago, but there’s no company in the world that can do what we do and it wouldn’t have been possible in any other city in the world besides Kansas City. There’s other companies that are trying to do people counting and traffic analysis, but no one can do it like we can because no one else has done events with a million plus people. We’re the only company that has that track record. So it’s pretty exciting to be here and just be a part of everything.”

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