# Do any statistical studies verify the so-called "home team advantage" in any sport? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2002, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241 "2002-11-18T02:18:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/21 "2002-11-18T19:15:49Z")
Some more comparative numbers BASKETBALL (NBA) 2001-2002 Season During the 2001-2002 season the home team record was 703-486, a winning percentage of .591. Of 29 teams, only one, Charlotte, had a better record away than home. (Miami was the same home and away.) Many teams were dramatically better at home than away: Denver: 20-21 at home, 7-34 away Portland: 30-11 at home, 19-22 away New Jersey: 33-8 at home, 19-22 away BASEBALL 2002 season Baseball home teams in 2002 enjoyed a record of 1314-1111, for a .542 winning percentage. Two teams, Boston, and Cincinnati, had better road records than home records, and a few were tied. Interestingly, the “uniqueness” of the park apears to have no effect on home field advantage. I chose six parks as being unusually different from other parks: Boston (unusual dimensions) Colorado (altitude) Houston (unusual dimensions) Seattle (extreme pitcher’s park) Minnesota (visibility) and San Francisco (dimensions, extreme pitcher’s park, unusual weather.) Home record for those teams: 288 wins in 486 games, a .592 winning percentage. However, these teams also went .521 on the road (by sheer chance most were good teams) suggesting their home boost was about the major league norm. Interestingly, Colorado, with probably the most unusual of home parks, had the majors’ most extreme home field advantage: 21 games worse at home. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/22 "2002-11-18T20:09:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BobT \* > \*\*I found a study, that I cannot link to for propietary reasons, that from 1979-1990, the home team in extra inning baseball games won at a .522 percentage. > > If you expand the meaning of extra innings to just include games where the score was tied after 8 or 9 innings, then the home team winning percentage for the same time period went up to .531 \*\* This seems very odd, if in fact the general home advantage in baseball is of the order of 54-55%. This implies that, if the home team wins only 52-53% of extra inning games, they must win proportionately even more of the non-extra-inning games to make up the difference - the reverse of what might be expected. But maybe the overall home field advantage (all games combined) was lower than 54-55% for the period 1979-1990? Does the study give this figure? ---
**Author:** ![Pythagras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/45deac/32.png) [@Pythagras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pythagras)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/23 "2002-11-18T20:23:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sofa King \* > \*\*You might want to take a look at Clemson’s 70% win record at [Death Valley](http://home.sc.rr.com/diehardtiger/dvalley.htm). Note however that Florida State completely bucks the trend when playing there. \*\* Did you see the first bunch of teams they listed: Furman The Citadel Western Carolina Appalachian St. Duquesne Virginia Military Pensacola NAS Texas Christian Long Beach State Rice Wofford Temple Ball State UT-Chattanooga Nevada-Las Vegas ETSU Texas-El Paso Missouri I dare say the best team here might be Temple or Missouri… Playing teams like these at home will certainly give you a “home-field advantage.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/24 "2002-11-18T20:33:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Colibri \* > \*\*This seems very odd, if in fact the general home advantage in baseball is of the order of 54-55%. This implies that, if the home team wins only 52-53% of extra inning games, they must win proportionately even more of the non-extra-inning games to make up the difference - the reverse of what might be expected. > \*\* Not necessarily. It is a universal truth in baseball (and probably most sports) that the closer the game, the closer all winning percentages converge on .500. For instance, in baseball, a team’s record in one-run games is usually CLOSER to .500 than its overall record. Very good teams tend to do worse in one-run games than their overall record, and better in blowout games than their overall record. Bad teams will tend to do better in 1-run games and worse in blowouts than their overall record. Since all extra inning games are by definition close games - they were 0-run games after 9 innings - it would make sense that teams would tend to play .500 ball in them. There’s a far greater element of random chance in an extra inning game, which is essentially a succession of one-inning games, than a normal nine-inning game. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/25 "2002-11-18T20:53:49Z")
For what it’s worth, I looked at this morning’s NFL standings. Hopefully I have added things up right. Teams with a better home record 17 Teams with a better away record 8 Equal 7 Overall home win/loss/tie record - 87-71-1 After tonight each of the 32 teams will play six more regular season games, most will have 3 home and 3 away games. The balance will be split 4-2 or 2-4. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/26 "2002-11-18T21:02:03Z")
I believe the non extra inning game figure for the same time was around 54-55%. Keep in mind that the vast percentage of games don’t go in to extra innings. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/27 "2002-11-18T21:09:45Z")
**BobT** : Good points. It is interesting, though, that the home team’s “sudden death” advantage in extra inning games - which is often postulated as a significant part of the home field advantage - actually accounts for so little of it. It accounts for a 2-3% advantage, but as you point out this is only in a small percentage of all games played. Most of the home advantage in baseball must be in other factors. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/28 "2002-11-18T21:22:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fishcrawford \* > \*\*I believe there probably is some home field advantage; but the example you gave with Denver is because of their height above see level. Their opponents have a very hard time breathing and get winded quicker, therefore it gives an advantage to the players who are more experienced playing in that climate. \*\* I recall this being advanced as a reason the Broncos got trounced in 3 Superbowls between 1987-1990. Their altitude advantage allowed them to build a winning record at home and win their division and the playoffs, and made them look much better than they actually were. However, this advantage disappeared when they played in the Superbowl at sea level. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/29 "2002-11-18T21:37:53Z")
Baseball has a feature some sports don’t. The home team always knows at some point the exact score to beat. That would be a big advantage, except that, the away team knows it too, so they can alter their positioning and play. In just about any sport, the chances of victory for the “weaker” team is greater the less game remains after the tie score. I have no chance beating Tiger Woods in a complete round of golf, but if it comes down to a single shot, I have some trivial chance of beating him. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/30 "2002-11-19T12:28:18Z")
Good point, that last one. When I played squash, if a game tied at 14, one of the players (I think it was the one who got there first, but I don’t really remember) got to choose to play to 15 or 17 (if it got tied at 13, there was a choice between 15 or 16 and no choice at 14-14) and since I was almost always the weaker player, if it was my choice, I always chose 15. I think the biggest home field advantage in baseball is that the outfielders know how to play the bounces and the infielders and catcher know where foul territory ends. Also, the home team can, to some extent, arrange things to help their own team. The Pirates brought in their fences around 1950 to help Ralph Kiner and the late 40s Indians with lead-footed Lou Boudreau as their shortstop (and manager, probably the last long-term player-manager) made a swamp around shortstop to minimize his liability there. They won a World Series in '48 that way. Extra inning games are really random. By that time the team has usually used up its best relief pitchers, its pinch hitters (I am thinking NL) and is down to different team that is not at all representative of its usual playing strength. And I think that fly ball pitchers can have quite different home and away records. You don’t want a fly ball pitcher in Mile High if you have a choice. On the other hand, a ground ball pitcher ought to be pretty much the same everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/31 "2002-11-19T15:53:21Z")
I think as well that there is an intangible psychological factor in playing at home vs playing away, as well as travel demands on road teams that need to be taken into account… ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/32 "2002-11-19T18:21:27Z")
Actually in Coors Field, ground ball pitchers aren’t helped out either. The balls on the ground travel much faster at altitude also, so they get through faster. About the only pitcher who is always successful at Coors Field is a strikeout pitcher. The altitude won’t come in to play if you don’t hit the ball. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241/33 "2002-11-19T18:22:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shade \* > \*\*Remember that the home team always winning doesn’t necessarily mean they have an advantage. For instance if better teams had bigger stadiums, they might play at home more. > > I think most games have home/away matches, but maybe not all. \*\* In all of the North American major league sports, teams have the same number of home and away games each season (hockey 41/41, basketball 42/42, baseball 81/81, football 8/8). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-statistical-studies-verify-the-so-called-home-team-advantage-in-any-sport/137241.md?page=1)