How the Folsom Field seat and sun data is measured

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

Sources

Stadium shape: USGS 3D Elevation Program lidar, Denver Regional Council of Governments 2020 collection, flown 29 May 2020. First-return points gridded to 1 m, noise removed.
Section directions: the section order round the stadium from a ticket map, lined up with the field in the lidar.
Student, band and visitor sections and the row numbering (the upper deck starts at Row 51): cubuffs.com. Row lists and the Colorado side: rateyourseats.com.
Gates, bag rules, water, blankets and Ralphie's Road: cubuffs.com. Parking and the shuttle: colorado.edu. The 2024 video board: Mortenson. 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, 4146 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. Kickoffs not yet announced are modelled at each Big 12 window (10 am, 1:30 pm, 5 pm, 8:15 pm Mountain).

How rows are placed

Row numbers run continuously up the rake, so each row sits at its own row number times one row depth from the field wall. The depth (0.72 m) is measured on the east side, where Rows 1 to 83 are visible end to end; where a column's rake is shorter (the curved south end) the rows close up evenly to fit. On the west side the press box overhangs the top of the lower bowl: those rows keep the open-side depth and count as covered.

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 May 2020. The 2024 south video board stands above the upper deck and is not in the model; no seating sections have changed since.
The ticket map is not drawn to scale, so section directions come from it but section edges can be off by a few seats.
Not modelled: field-level Sections 1 to 3, the clubs, the Flatirons seats in Balch Fieldhouse, the suites and the rooftop terrace.
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