Home Field Advantages

The two authors in the book spend an entire chapter attempting to debunk the four most conventional theories that people assumed for ages have played the biggest factor in creating the mystique of home-field advantage. By looking at individual settings over the course of a game that pit players up against the home crowd, such as free throws in the NBA or penalty shots in hockey, the statistics concluded that the crowd did not make it that much harder for players to cash in on their opportunities. For example, the authors cite the following statistical evidence from the NBA to help make their point: “Over the last two decades in the NBA, including more than 23,000 games, the free throw percentage of the visiting teams is 75.9 percent and that of the home team is...75.9 percent - identical even to the right decimal point” (118). They would go on to state that factors like travel, difficulty of schedule, and the ability to take advantage of home stadium characteristics, are all irrelevant to home teams winning more times than not. In each case, the statistics painted the exact opposite effect than most would assume, especially in the case of traveling, where it was found that the further a team ventured for a game had no baring on the outcome of the contest. It is found, however, that a small portion of home-court advantage could be …show more content…
They base this on a number of factors, but mainly by saying this about officials: “They are not, however, immune to human psychology, and that’s where we think the explanation for home team bias resides” (157). Aspects of all sports were put to the test, and it is really hard to argue with the results they came up with. The statistical analysis, in this case, does an accurate job of pin-pointing the bias in each sport and it is safe to say that the conclusion is