The Home Advantage

This investigation confirms the existence of a home advantage in organized sports; however, it refines and extends that knowledge in a number of ways. The home advantage is most pronounced in the indoor sports of ice hockey and basketball; least so, in the outdoor sports of baseball and football. More effective offensive rather than defensive action is the major factor in the home advantage among all sports. Playing at home or away from home is as strong a correlate of a team's performance as is the average quality of its players. Finally, inferences from the data, as well as more direct observations on audience size and its relationship to performance and outcome, justify the conclusion that the home advantage is almost totally independent of visitor fatigue and lack of familiarity with the home playing area; it is mainly attributable to the social support of the home audience. This study relates to a perspective on group support whose origin is embodied in the work of Emile Durkheim. While Durkheim is best known for his stress on the inhibiting and restraining character of the moral community, he also finds within it the ultimate source of human energy and inspiration. This side of his thought is particularly evident in remarks concerning the stimulating effects of social congregation (240): There are occasions when the strengthening and vivifying action of society is especially apparent. In the midst of an assembly animated by a common passion, we become susceptible of acts and sentiments of which we are incapable when reduced to our own forces; and when the assembly is dissolved and when, finding ourselves alone again, we fall back to our ordinary level, we are then able to measure the height to which we have been raised above ourselves (b, 240). For Durkheim, then, the very conditions which regulate man's passions and conduct are those which inspire and propel him to the most extraordinary levels of achievement. The purpose of the present investigation is to determine why, and to what extent, this is so. We will approach this problem by considering the effect of community support on the performance of local athletic teams. We also propose to determine the sources of this support and to gauge its influence on performance in relation to the effects of other determinants. To do this, we examine a phenomenon that is well-recognized but about which little is really known, namely, the home advantage in organized sports. By studying a phenomenon within the sphere of sport, we learn something about determining elements in the fate of those engaged in more serious undertakings. Although we cannot demonstrate the truth of this assertion, there seems to *The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Charles Bosk, Paul Collard, Robert Greene, and Russell White. We also profited from comments by William Parish and Dean MacCannell.