How the Bryant-Denny Stadium seat and sun data is measured

Every number comes from a USGS lidar survey of the stadium, NOAA solar equations, the 2026 Alabama section numbering and published row lists. Nothing is estimated from photos.

Sources

Stadium shape: USGS 3D Elevation Program lidar, Alabama South West Central collection, flown 4 February 2023, 1 tile. First-return points gridded to 1 m, noise removed.
Section directions: the section order round the stadium from a ticket map (section centres only), lined up with the field in the lidar. rolltide.com's gate list puts Sections 101 to 107 at the West Ground Level gate, which fixes the sides.
Section numbers: the 2026 numbering from rolltide.com. The old to new table is on the sections page.
Row lists, covered rows, team sides and the student section: rateyourseats.com section notes. Alabama's own pages do not say which sideline the team uses or which sections students sit in.
Gates, bag rules, parking and tailgating: rolltide.com and uagameday.com. Capacity and opening year: Wikipedia.
Sun: NOAA solar position equations. Weather: ERA5 reanalysis and forecasts via Open-Meteo.

How shade is computed

Each section is sampled on 3 lines (left, centre, right) at every row, 11853 seat points in total. For each point the surrounding stadium surface is scanned in every direction the sun can come from to give a horizon profile. A seat is in direct sun when the sun is higher than that horizon. Games are sampled every 10 minutes for 3.5 hours. Rows under the structure above count as shade.

How rows are placed

A line is walked out from the field edge through each section, and the measured profile is split into tiers by height: the lower bowl up to about 16 m and the upper deck about 26 to 50 m up. On the end zone rakes the whole tier is visible, so row depth is the tier length divided by the rows: 0.82 m in the lower bowl and about 0.93 m in the upper deck.

How the seat views are made

Each view is drawn from a 3D model built from the lidar, from 1.15 m above the seat (seated eye height), facing the field. Only rows open to the sky get a view.

Limits

The lidar was flown in February 2023. Alabama renumbered every section for 2026 but says rows and seats did not change. The Tuscaloosa News reported plans for new suites from after the 2025 season; no official source says any seating section changed, so the 2023 shape is used.
The upper deck overhangs the back of the lower bowl on the sidelines and in the corners, and the skybox levels overhang the sideline upper decks. On those sections the lidar sees only the front rows. The hidden rows continue along the measured slope at the row depth measured on the open end zones, so their distances and heights are approximate and they count as shade.
Section edges come from the section order round the stadium, not an official drawing, so a section's sideways extent can be off by a seat or two.
Not modelled: the club and suite levels (500s to 700s), which have no published row lists, and the 3-row corner sections 817, 830, 847 and 860.
Light poles and video boards thinner than the 1 m grid may be missed.

Downloads (CC BY 4.0)

sun-by-section.csv: game, kickoff, section, minutes of sun, shade arrival
sections.json: section geometry and row-by-row sightlines