How the Tiger Stadium seat and sun data is measured

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

Sources

Stadium shape: USGS 3D Elevation Program lidar, Louisiana Amite collection (flown 2019, tiles 15RXP7364, 15RXP7366 and 15RXP7566). First-return points gridded to 1 m, noise removed.
Section positions: the official LSU 2026 Tiger Stadium seating chart, lined up with the field in the lidar. The chart is not drawn to scale, so its length and width are scaled separately.
Row lists, team sides, the band and visitor sections: rateyourseats.com section notes.
Student sections, gates, bag rules, food and parking: lsusports.net.
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, 10719 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.

How rows are placed

A line is walked out from the field through each section, and the lidar surface along it is split into decks wherever it jumps up by more than 4 m. Where several rings share one deck (the 200s and 400s in the end zones), they are stacked front to back with a walkway between them. Row depth is the measured deck length divided by its rows, so rows always land on measured concrete. Row depths range from 0.5 to 1.1 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.

Limits

The lidar is from 2019. Anything built or changed since is not in the shadow model.
Kickoff times are TV picks. SEC kickoff windows published by LSU: early 11 am to noon CT, flex 2:30 to 3:30 pm or 5 to 7 pm CT; exact times set by the networks 6 to 12 days out. Each possible window is modelled until the time is announced, then pages update automatically.
Suites and the press box are not modelled as seats. Light poles and video boards that are 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