How the Oklahoma Memorial Stadium seat and sun data is measured

Every number comes from a USGS lidar survey of the stadium, NOAA solar equations, the official OU gameday map and published row lists. Nothing is estimated from photos or copied from ticket sites.

Sources

Stadium shape: USGS 3D Elevation Program lidar, Oklahoma Panhandle 2018 collection (flown 6 March 2019), 4 tiles. First-return points gridded to 1 m, noise removed.
Section order: the official 2026 OU gameday map. That map is not drawn to scale, so each section is placed by its position around the stand and measured from the lidar.
Row lists, covered rows, team sides, clubs and student sections: rateyourseats.com.
Gates, bag rules, first aid and road closures: the OU A-Z guide and bag policy. Capacity: soonersports.com.
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, 13197 seat points in total. For each point the surrounding stadium surface is scanned in every direction the sun can come from, including the press box and the east club tower. A seat is in direct sun when the sun is higher than that horizon. Games are sampled every 10 minutes for 3.5 hours, at every kickoff time the SEC has left open.

How rows are placed

A line is walked out from the field through each section and the measured rake is split into tiers by height: the lower bowl up to about 17 m, the west upper deck about 21 to 37 m, the East Stadium Club about 22 to 27 m and the east upper deck about 34 to 51 m. Rows are numbered from the front of the stand, so a section whose list starts at Row 29 begins 28 rows back. Where a covered row is published, the open rows are spread over the visible slope in front of it. Row depths range from 0.651 to 0.927 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, facing the field. Views are only drawn for open rows.

Limits

The lidar was flown in March 2019. Since then OU added handrails and widened aisles (2019) and moved the student section; the bowl itself is unchanged. The Palace Project rebuild starts after the 2027 season.
Suites, the Santee Lounge interior and the South Champions Club interior are not modelled as seats.
Lower west Sections 1 to 9 and lower east 27 to 35 run under the deck above from the published cover row; corner sections have no published cover row and are shown as open.

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