Some seats, yes. For a typical July 1:10 PM day game at Memorial Stadium, roughly 37% of the seating bowl is shaded on average across the event. Shade grows through the late afternoon; by 6:00 PM about 65% of seats are out of the sun.
Check YOUR seat for YOUR event →Typical July afternoon highs at Memorial Stadium are around 89°F. Shaded seats make a real comfort difference.
No. Memorial Stadium is open air.
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, NE) is oriented 174° from true north. We compute the sun's exact position for your date and start time and run it against the seating geometry, plus live schedules and an hour-by-hour forecast on the interactive site.
Interactive shade map for Memorial Stadium · Satellite shadow view
Nebraska fans have filled Memorial Stadium for every home game across a sellout streak that stretches back generations, which means 85,000-plus people in Lincoln share the same problem several Saturdays a year: an open bowl, a high plains sun, and not much between the two. Across a full early-afternoon day game, Memorial Stadium averages about 37 percent shade. At kickoff the sun sits 70 degrees up in the south-southeast, nearly overhead, and the red-clad lower bowl takes it straight on.
The strongest shade numbers belong to the club level, where sections 206 through 211 each average around 50 percent shade over a day game, covered by the structure above them. The lower bowl is the exposed zone: sections 105 and 106 average 29 percent shade, while 130 and 131 come in at 27 percent, the sunniest seats in the stadium. Between those extremes, the pattern is the usual one for a bowl this size: the higher you sit and the more deck there is over your head, the more of the game you spend out of the light.
Lincoln's warm season overlaps squarely with the start of football. June and July afternoons run 88 to 89°F, August holds 85, and September is still 78, and out on the plains the sun comes with wind and low humidity that dry you out faster than you notice. For an August or September day kick, treat hydration as part of the game plan: water before, during, and after, sunscreen reapplied at halftime, and a hat for anyone in the low sections. Nebraska tailgating adds hours of open-sky exposure before the gates even open, so the sun day starts mid-morning, not at kickoff.
The break comes reliably late in the game. As the afternoon sun drops toward the west, shadows stretch across Memorial Stadium, and from 6 PM onward shade coverage averages 65 percent. In high summer the sun is down to 19 degrees by 7 PM and sets at 8:57, so night games play out mostly in shade and cooling air. By November, with highs near 53°F, Husker fans are hunting the sunny sections for warmth and the shade question retires for the year.
If avoiding sun is the goal, the ranking at Memorial Stadium is straightforward: club sections 206 through 211 first, high covered rows second, and the low 100-level sideline sections last, especially 105, 106, 130, and 131 for day games. For anything more precise than that, the interactive shade map computes the shadow line across every section in Lincoln for your exact date and kickoff time, from the noon kicks that test you to the night games that don't.
Upcoming events at Memorial Stadium are ticketed on TixBit. Check the shade map first, then grab a seat on the shady side.