Dear 100 Hour Board,
I was at the Church Conference Center recently for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. I was wondering: could they fit a football field on the floor of the Conference Center?
– g
Dear g,
OK. Let’s start with what we know. A football field is 360 feet by 160 feet. That means a football field is 57,600 square feet.
Now let’s compare that to the Conference Center. The Conference Center occupies a 10-acre lot. It seats 21,000 people (7,000 on each level) with nobody sitting more than 270 feet from the stage. And it’s 1.5 million square feet. (As a reference, your average single family home in Utah is probably about 2,500 square feet.) As far as numbers go, the combined area of the stage, rostrum, and backstage areas is about 250 feet by 150 feet — about half the size of a football field. Unfortunately, there are no exact figures for just the floor seating area of the Conference Center. You figure though, if that area of the stage rostrum, and backstage is 250 feet by 150 feet, then the theater section is at least 250 feet wide as well. Now, if people can sit up to 270 feet from the stage, we can use that as an approximate length and then use the earlier figure of the theatre being at least 250 feet wide. So, if you haven’t already figured it out…
250 feet x 270 feet = 67,500 square feet
Compare that to the square footage of a football field (57,600) and you have your answer. Yes. There’d hypothetically be room for a football field on the floor of the Conference Center (with room to spare).
Unfortunately, though I doubt it’s going to happen any time soon. There’s the obvious fact that with the way the levels overlap, most of the audience wouldn’t even be able to see the game below them. But also, when the Conference Center was being built, the theater consultant specifically said, “Our prime objective was to get 21,000 people into one space without having it look like a sports arena.” Looks like you’re out of luck.
For more interest facts about the dimensions of the Conference Center, see deseretnews.com/confer/cctour/.
– Thor
