Home court/field/ice advantage

It would be easy to cite specific examples where a team enjoys a particularly strong home-field advantage, but I'm thinking more generally, in terms of the sport itself. Right now, I'd say pro basketball enjoys the most significant home-court advantage of any sport.

I'm too lazy, but I'm sure there's stats out there which would support, at least numerically, which sport has the highest number of home-team wins versus road-team wins. And certainly that's a figure which would factor into this.

Thoughts?

 

Home team gets last shift change in hockey.

When the Final shifts back to Ottawa, it'll give the Sens a definite advantage.

 

I can't believe you forgot lacrosse, soccer and ping pong ... those athletes work just as hard as everyone else!

 

I guess I did forget soccer, which likely involves a VERY large home-crowd advantage.

I added soccer to the list.

But no stinkin' lacrosse!

 

I think this is a very tough one.

I'm inclined to say NBA games seem to be officiated much differently for the home team than for the visiting team and thus offers the greatest home field/court advantge.

But it is hard to ignore baseball -- where every park is unique and teams are built for their own park and the home team gets to bat last.

I'd love to see some stats on this, like you had said Alley, because it is an interesting subject.

 

I went with college basketball. Places like Allen Fieldhouse, Cameron, Gallgher-Iba, Lloyd Noble Center, The Pit, etc. have the history factor along with being tough places to play. These new, snazzy multi-gajillion dollar stadiums are nice and all, but have little character. Think about Kansas basketball if it built a new arena. The AT&T/Allen Fieldhouse just wouldn't be as tough as historic Allen Fieldhouse, would it?

 

That's pretty much what I was thinking.

 

I think it's been proven that college basketball's homecourt advantage is unparalleled. The home team wins a very high percentage of games, the refereeing varies from home to road a lot more. The fans in the college game are so much more raucous and the buildings themselves so much more intimidating in college basketball than the sterile, generic NBA arenas.

 

I would agree with baseball because you can build around the park more than anywhere else. Hockey, too, with the last change, offers a definite advantage to the home side.