How the Levi's Stadium seat and sun data is measured

Every number comes from a USGS lidar survey of the stadium, NOAA solar equations, the 49ers section numbering and published row lists. Nothing is estimated from photos.

Sources

Stadium shape: USGS 3D Elevation Program lidar, Santa Clara County 2020 collection (flown 14 April 2020), 4 tiles. 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.
Row lists, covered rows, clubs and team sides: rateyourseats.com section notes.
Gates, bag rules, parking, tailgating and transit: levisstadium.com and 49ers.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, 9591 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 deck 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 10.5 m, the 200 level about 14 to 23 m up, and the upper deck about 27 to 50 m up. Where a cover row is published, the row depth is the open length of the tier divided by the rows in front of it. The 300s and 400s share the upper deck, so its length is divided by both sections' rows. Row depths range from 0.667 to 0.95 m.

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 April 2020. The 2024 to 2025 work renovated suites and club lounges, added 20 field-level seats and new video boards; the seating sections modelled here were not rebuilt. The new field-level seats are not modelled.
Rows under the deck above are hidden from above, so their position is extended along the measured slope and shown as covered.
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.
The 49ers sideline (west) is from rateyourseats.com section notes; the team and stadium pages do not state it.
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