Home Field Advantage

[Deck Knight]

One of the intricacies of sports that always fascinated me was the concept of the Home Field Advantage. The theory being that playing in your own arena was inherently advantageous to your team, thus why sportscasters constantly talk about home game vs. road game performance.

This concept makes perfect sense to me in Baseball. In Baseball every team's stadium is different, the home team gets the last at bat, you play by the home team's league rules, etc. There are obvious and incredible advantages to being the home team in Baseball.

This makes less sense to me as a metric in sports with more standardized arenas and rules. Short of very minute differences on wear and tear, basketball courts, soccer fields, and football fields are all the same. Aside from the psychological edge of defending your own ground in your own house, I don't see enough concrete advantages to make home and road significantly different statistics.

Do you have any insight on this? Is there something I missed? How much does Home Field Advantage really factor in?

 

[YoshiX]

Having the fans behind you helps, own bed vs. hotel, all the little things add up.

 

[snorlaxative]

weather and field conditions play a huge role in determining the outcome of a football game. there are plenty of notable stories regarding the weather (brett favre at home in december/january and never lost a playoff game at home until 2002, tampa's inability to win in cold weather, etc). field conditions are drastically different from stadium to stadium (heinz field grass vs. other stadiums' grass vs. field turf).

the playing surface in basketball and hockey seem standard enough that it shouldn't affect game play (outside of maybe depth perception when shooting a basketball)

 

[Polis4rule]

In football, it is also the noise factor. A home field crowd will be quieter for you on offense, and roar when the defense goes on. Weather is also a big factor; the home field team practices in that weather and is more accustomed to it. This is why stadiums such as The Swamp are notoriously hard to play at. I also think that it's psychological, as teams generally do perform better for a home crowd than for a "foreign crowd."

tampa's former inability to win in cold weather

Fix'd it for you ;) Tampa has won games in the cold now.

For the other sports, I don't know what the home field advantage does, but I probably it is psychological.

 

[Lakers]

Well, Football fields are somewhat different. Some Fields use Artificial turf, which is a way different surface to play on then Grass field turf. Plus, the fans are always an advantage. They can rattle the opposing team a bit, which can come in handy in Basketball/Football (more notable in basketball when a team goes on a run). Plus, theres always the factor of a team being jet lagged if it has to travel from east coast to west coast to play a road game

 

[Loki]

yeah i would argue that homefield advantage is the greatest in football. in any stadium, the crowd noise is definitely a factor when it comes to calling audibles and quarterbacks abusing a hard count to draw defensive players offside. the crowd noise can also cause offensive lineman to false start. weather as mentioned is also a pretty big factor during late fall and winter in cold weather stadiums.

in basketball, the crowd sometimes can influence the decision of a referee. referees are people too and they can get caught up in the moment. it's not unusual to see home teams get calls that they probably wouldnt get on the road.

 

[darknite]

While the playing surface is the same in basketball, the arena can play a role in a team's shooting performance. I feel this particularly applies to college basketball. For example, playing in a fieldhouse-type arena like Allen Fieldhouse (Kansas), The Barn (Minnesota), or Cameron Indoor Stadium (Duke) is much different from playing in a true arena like Rupp Arena (Kentucky) or Thompson-Boling Arena (Tennessee). What I mean by "different" is the "feel" of the arena. In a fielhouse the fans feel more compact and closer to the action as opposed to an arena where fans in the top rows can barely make out the players on the court. The difference in backdrop behind the goal between the two stadium types is very noticeable on the court and takes time getting used to. And then there are really weird arenas like Memorial Coliseum (Vanderbilt) where the court is elevated above the floor-level fans.

 

[Carl]

Hockey also has a big "home ice" advantage.

The home team always gets last change for their players during stoppages so the home coach can see who the away team is going with and play match ups by sending out the best guys to counter. Also, the away team center has to put his stick on the ice first for all faceoffs which can be helpful for the home center when it comes to winning draws.

Besides actual rules benefiting the home team, there's the differences in arenas and ice quality. Colder cities will usually have smoother ice because it's easier to maintain and some venues, like Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, are older and give funny bounces off the boards. Teams know their home rink and will take advantage of those bounces.. the Red Wings scored 2 goals in game 1 of the SCF because of their bouncy boards and knowing how to use them.

 

[TEA_DEMON]

This is one reason why I hate commentators, always ranting on about this. I really don't see how it matters, a stadium is a stadium to me. It's a very ludicrous concept in some sports such as football and similar ones, but I can understand it in cricket for example.

 

[CaptainKishimoto]

Hockey also has a big "home ice" advantage.

The home team always gets last change for their players during stoppages so the home coach can see who the away team is going with and play match ups by sending out the best guys to counter. Also, the away team center has to put his stick on the ice first for all faceoffs which can be helpful for the home center when it comes to winning draws.

Besides actual rules benefiting the home team, there's the differences in arenas and ice quality. Colder cities will usually have smoother ice because it's easier to maintain and some venues, like Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, are older and give funny bounces off the boards. Teams know their home rink and will take advantage of those bounces.. the Red Wings scored 2 goals in game 1 of the SCF because of their bouncy boards and knowing how to use them.

Also I think Montreal's stadium (and possibly others) have the away dressing room way over on the otherside of the bench (so if they need to get repairs, they have to wait for a stoppage in play for getting on/off the ice).