How the Stanford Stadium seat and sun data is measured

Every number comes from a USGS lidar survey of the stadium, NOAA solar equations, Stanford's 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 13 and 14 April 2020, 4 tiles. First-return points gridded to 1 m, noise removed.
Section directions: the section labels on the Stanford Athletics stadium services map (a vector PDF), placed by their position round the field and lined up with the field in the lidar. The Stanford side (press box) matches the lidar.
Row lists, covered rows (lower level Rows W and up), the Stanford and visitor sides and the visiting fans' sections: rateyourseats.com section notes.
The Red Zone student section: gostanford.com (17 July 2025). Gates, bag rules, cashless, parking, transit and tailgating: gostanford.com. Accessible seating: Stanford's ADA access guide. 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, 6432 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 ACC window (12:30 pm, 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm Pacific).

How rows are placed

A line is walked out from the field edge through each section and takes the first rake in that level's height band: the lower level from the field wall up to the step at about 6 m, the upper level from about 11 m. In the lower level the open rows (A to V) spread over the visible rake and Rows W to Y continue under the upper level at the same depth (0.73 m per row); the upper level spreads its rows over its rake, never wider than the depth measured on the sidelines (0.81 m). Rows a section does not sell keep their place (Rows A to C in 139, A to M in 140).

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.

Limits

The lidar was flown in April 2020. The 2025 Red Zone move re-seated fans but changed no seats or rows, and we found no official seating change since.
The stadium map is not drawn to scale, so section directions come from it but section edges can be off by a few seats.
Sections 139 and 140 sit beside the south-east corner tunnel, which breaks the lidar profile through them: their row heights follow the lower level's measured slope.
Not modelled: the suites, the press box and the field-level boxes. Sections 107, 119 and 127 are tunnels.
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