How Many Acres Is a Football Field? Area With the End Zones Included

The answer to how many acres is a football field depends on what is counted as the field. The playing rules define three nested areas, and each has its own size. Anyone asking how many acres in a football field should say whether the end zones are included, because it moves the answer from 1.10 to 1.32 acres.

The most common answer is 1.32 acres, because the rulebook says the field includes the field of play and the end zones. The playing rules give the field as a rectangle 360 feet long and 160 feet wide. The goal lines sit 10 yards, or 30 feet, inside each end line, so each end zone is 30 feet deep, and the field of play, from goal line to goal line, is 300 feet, or 100 yards.

How many acres is a football field without the end zones? It is 1.10 acres. That is the number to use for the stretch between the goal lines, the 100 yards marked by the yard lines.

The fourth row of the table adds the border. The rules say the field is rimmed by a solid white border a minimum of 6 feet wide along the end lines and sidelines. With a border of that minimum width on all four sides, the marked area is 372 feet by 172 feet, which is 1.47 acres. A border may be wider, and the rulebook sets only the minimum, so that row is a lower bound for the marked surface.

The calculation is multiplication followed by division. The field is 360 feet by 160 feet, so the area is 360 multiplied by 160, which is 57,600 square feet. An acre is defined as 43,560 square feet, which NIST also gives as 4,046.856 square metres. Dividing 57,600 by 43,560 gives 1.3223, which rounds to 1.32 acres.

The same steps work for the other areas. For the field of play, 300 feet by 160 feet is 48,000 square feet, and 48,000 divided by 43,560 is 1.1019, or 1.10 acres. For one end zone, 30 feet by 160 feet is 4,800 square feet, and 4,800 divided by 43,560 is 0.1102, or 0.11 acres. Two end zones together are 9,600 square feet, or 0.22 acres.

In square yards the full field is 6,400 square yards, because the field is 120 yards long and 53⅓ yards wide. In hectares it is 0.535, and the field of play is 0.446 hectares. The metric figures come from the exact conversion of one square foot to 0.09290304 square metres, which follows from the international foot of 0.3048 metres.

The question of how many football fields in an acre runs the other way for land. One acre is 43,560 square feet, and a full football field is 57,600 square feet, so one acre is 0.76 of a football field, which is about three-quarters. Counted by the field of play alone, one acre is 0.91 of a field. So how many football fields in an acre? Fewer than one, and how many acres is a football field is the same figure turned around: 1.32 acres with the end zones. The area compared with other land is easiest to read from the table below.

A square mile is 640 acres, which is 27,878,400 square feet, and that is exactly 484 full football fields. The table shows why the football field is used as a unit of comparison for land: the numbers are easy to picture, and an acre is just under three-quarters of the field the viewers see on television.

If an acre were a square, each side would be about 208.7 feet, a little more than half the length of a football field. A football field is not a square, so this is only a way to picture the size.

The playing rules describe the field in Rule 1. The game is played on a rectangular field 360 feet in length and 160 feet in width. The lines at each end are the end lines, and the lines on each side are the sidelines. The goal lines are established in the field 10 yards from and parallel to each end line. The area bounded by the goal lines and sidelines is the field of play, and the areas bounded by goal lines, end lines and sidelines are the end zones.

The rulebook also says that the field includes the field of play and the end zones, and that the field is rimmed by a solid white border a minimum of 6 feet wide. Benches must be a minimum of 30 feet back from the sidelines, which means the area a stadium needs for a game is larger than the field itself.

The playing rules set the same dimensions for every NFL stadium. The rule that applies to the NFL does not apply to every football field in the world: college, high school and international fields are set by other organisations, and this page covers only the NFL rulebook.

The figure of 1.32 acres is the whole field, field of play and both end zones together. The rulebook's lines let the area be split in other ways, and the pieces are easy to work out from the same measurements and the definition of an acre as 43,560 square feet. The field of play, from goal line to goal line, is 300 feet by 160 feet, which is 48,000 square feet, or 1.10 acres. Each end zone is 30 feet by 160 feet, which is 4,800 square feet, or 0.11 acres, so the two together cover 9,600 square feet, or 0.22 acres.

The rulebook also puts a solid white border at least 6 feet wide all around the field. Counting that minimum border on every side makes the marked rectangle 372 feet by 172 feet, which is 63,984 square feet, or 1.47 acres. The benches must be at least 30 feet back from the sidelines, so the space a stadium needs for a game is larger again, and the rulebook gives no single figure for it.

Football is measured in yards as well as feet, and the area can be given the same way. The whole field is 120 yards by 53⅓ yards, which is 6,400 square yards, and the field of play between the goal lines is 100 yards by 53⅓ yards, or 5,333⅓ square yards. An acre is 4,840 square yards, so the field is about 1.32 acres however the units are written.

The dimensions come from Rule 1 of the official NFL playing rules, Section 1, Article 1 and Article 2. The size of an acre comes from the NIST conversion factors, which give the international acre as 43,560 square feet, or 4,046.856 square metres. Every area, ratio and conversion on this page is calculated from those figures, and the steps are shown above so they can be repeated with a calculator.

The figures are current as of October 2026 and will be checked again when a new edition of the playing rules is published. More football pages are collected on the NFL hub, and the markings, goal posts and other dimensions of the field are covered on the page about the dimensions of a football field.