How the Huntington Bank Stadium seat and sun data is measured

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

Sources

Stadium shape: USGS 3D Elevation Program lidar, Minnesota Central Mississippi River collection, flown 16 May 2022, 4 tiles. 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.
Row lists, covered rows, and the student and visitor sections: rateyourseats.com section notes. gophersports.com does not publish the bench side or the student and visitor sections.
Gates, bag rules, heated gear, beer, parking, shuttle, tailgating and the 2026 changes: gophersports.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, 8037 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. No remaining kickoff is announced yet, so every Big Ten window (11 am, 2:30 pm, 6:30 pm) is modelled.

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 100 level up to about 10.5 m, the 200 level about 12 to 25.5 m. Where the 200 level overhangs the back of the 100 level, or the press tower overhangs the south 200s, the hidden rows continue along the measured slope.

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 2022. gophersports.com reports no seating changes since; the 2026 changes are to entry screening, sound and food.
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: Club Cambria (not on the ticket map), the Indoor Club, the loge boxes and the suites.
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