How Wide Is A Football Field?

If you're a sports fan, you may have wondered, "How wide is a football field?"  The answer depends on whether you are watching American football, or international football (otherwise known as soccer.) We'll look at both here.

So, just how wide is a football field? In American football, the field is 160 feet (53 1/3 yards) wide.  That's a bit more than half of the 360 feet (120 yards) that make up the length (including endzones).  If you are more familiar with metric, you make be wondering how wide a football field would be in meters. Converted, the width of an American football field would be about 48 3/4 meters, while the length would be about 109 3/4 meters. As so much of the game depends on yardage, converting to metric while actually playing an American football game would be highly impractical. ("He's on the 9.14 meter line, now the 18.29!" Just doesn't cut it, somehow.) 

When asking the question, "How wide is a football field?" when considering an international football (soccer) field, the answer is more complex. Within a set range, length and width actually vary, even on professional football fields. According to the The Official Soccer Book of the United States Soccer Federation, a football field (or soccer "pitch") must be between 100 and 130 yards long and 50 to 100 yards wide. That's quite a large variance! As international football is far less about measurement, it's not as vital to the game.  For comparison however, the 2010 the World Cup field measured 105 meters (114.83 yards) long and 68 meters (74.37 yards) wide.

So, how wide is a football field? The answer depends on the game. Either way there are plenty of yards (or meters) to fill with intense competition, whether you're in the game or watching from the sidelines. Game on!