How the Rice-Eccles Stadium seat and sun data is measured

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

Sources

Stadium shape: USGS 3D Elevation Program lidar, Salt Lake County 2023 collection, flown 2 November 2023. 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, team sides and the visitor section: rateyourseats.com section notes. utahutes.com does not publish the bench side or the student and visitor sections.
Gates, bag rules, water, cashless and rideshare: stadium.utah.edu. Parking, free transit and tailgating: utahtickets.com. ALKEME Field Boxes: utahutes.com. Renovation plans and the Red Zone alcohol option: the Salt Lake Tribune. 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, 6822 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. The BYU kickoff is not announced yet, so every Big 12 window (10 am, 1:30 pm, 5 pm, 8:15 pm Mountain) is modelled.

How rows are placed

A line is walked out from the field edge through each section to the first rise that keeps climbing; the rows are spread evenly up that rake to where it stops being visible. Rows a section does not sell (Rows 1 to 25 in the south corners) keep their depth. On the west side the top rows continue under the tower at the depth measured on the open east side.

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 November 2023. The 2026 ALKEME Field Boxes (north end zone, field level) are newer and are not modelled.
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: the south end zone loge boxes and club seats, the suites and the field boxes.
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