Home Field Advantage Research Paper
The Factors Behind Home field Advantage
We have all heard of home field advantage, but is it real? According to Wikipedia, Home field advantage is described as “the advantage–usually a psychological advantage–that the home team is said to have over the visiting team as a result of playing in familiar facilities and in front of supportive fans.”(Wikipedia) Over the course of this paper I plan on the examining the environmental and psychological factors that give these home teams a better chance at winning week in and week out.
We’ll begin by looking at the environmental factors that contribute to the home field advantage. Take the Denver Bronco’s Mile High stadium in Denver, Colorado for example. The Mile High stadium is exactly that, …show more content…
In Jeremy Jamison’s’ Meta Analysis of Home field advantage he found that “Crowd noise has been shown to influence referees’ judgments, as fewer fouls were assessed to home teams when audible noise was present than when noise was not present.” (Nevill, Balmer, & Williams, 2002). They can also work the opposite way, instead of maybe avoiding a flag or penalty a noisy crowd can sometimes be so loud that the visiting teams offense cant hear the quarterback change the play at the line resulting in an offside or delay of game penalty. A perfect example of this is found at the Seattle Sea Hawks’ Century Link Field. This is the home of the 12th man, the name for the Sea Hawks Fans. For years the Sea Hawks organization has embraced the fans as a huge factor in the defensive success and nicknamed them the 12th man as if they were part of the team. Since 2005 the Sea Hawks have amassed 121 false starts penalties against the visiting team at Century Link Field. (Langland, 2013) An accomplishment they openly credit to the 12th …show more content…
“Toughest venues: Altitude adjustment.” Espn website. October 10th,2012 Web September 25th
Langlad, Tyson. “The 12th Man.” The bleacher report website. February 8th, 2013. Web September 25th
Parks, Jeffery. “The Home Field Advantage in Athletics: A Meta-Analysis” December 12th 2010. Web. September 25th
Balmer, N. J., Nevill, A. M., & Williams, A. M. (2001). Home advantage in the Winter Olympics (1908–1998).
Journal of Sports Sciences, 19, 129–139
Greer, D. L. (1983). Spectator booing and the home advantage: A study of social influence in the basketball arena.
Social Psychology Quarterly ,46,252–261
Atkinson, G., & Reilly, T. (1996). Circadian variation in sports performance.
Sports Medicine,21, 292–312
Schwartz, B., & Barskey, S. F. (1977). The home advantage.
Social Forces,55, 641–661
Pollard, R. (2002). Evidence of a reduced home advantage when a team moves to a new stadium.
Journal of Sports Science,20, 969–973
Recht, L. D., Lew, R. A., & Schwartz, W. J. (1995). Baseball teams beaten by jet lag.Nature,377,
We have all heard of home field advantage, but is it real? According to Wikipedia, Home field advantage is described as “the advantage–usually a psychological advantage–that the home team is said to have over the visiting team as a result of playing in familiar facilities and in front of supportive fans.”(Wikipedia) Over the course of this paper I plan on the examining the environmental and psychological factors that give these home teams a better chance at winning week in and week out.
We’ll begin by looking at the environmental factors that contribute to the home field advantage. Take the Denver Bronco’s Mile High stadium in Denver, Colorado for example. The Mile High stadium is exactly that, …show more content…
In Jeremy Jamison’s’ Meta Analysis of Home field advantage he found that “Crowd noise has been shown to influence referees’ judgments, as fewer fouls were assessed to home teams when audible noise was present than when noise was not present.” (Nevill, Balmer, & Williams, 2002). They can also work the opposite way, instead of maybe avoiding a flag or penalty a noisy crowd can sometimes be so loud that the visiting teams offense cant hear the quarterback change the play at the line resulting in an offside or delay of game penalty. A perfect example of this is found at the Seattle Sea Hawks’ Century Link Field. This is the home of the 12th man, the name for the Sea Hawks Fans. For years the Sea Hawks organization has embraced the fans as a huge factor in the defensive success and nicknamed them the 12th man as if they were part of the team. Since 2005 the Sea Hawks have amassed 121 false starts penalties against the visiting team at Century Link Field. (Langland, 2013) An accomplishment they openly credit to the 12th …show more content…
“Toughest venues: Altitude adjustment.” Espn website. October 10th,2012 Web September 25th
Langlad, Tyson. “The 12th Man.” The bleacher report website. February 8th, 2013. Web September 25th
Parks, Jeffery. “The Home Field Advantage in Athletics: A Meta-Analysis” December 12th 2010. Web. September 25th
Balmer, N. J., Nevill, A. M., & Williams, A. M. (2001). Home advantage in the Winter Olympics (1908–1998).
Journal of Sports Sciences, 19, 129–139
Greer, D. L. (1983). Spectator booing and the home advantage: A study of social influence in the basketball arena.
Social Psychology Quarterly ,46,252–261
Atkinson, G., & Reilly, T. (1996). Circadian variation in sports performance.
Sports Medicine,21, 292–312
Schwartz, B., & Barskey, S. F. (1977). The home advantage.
Social Forces,55, 641–661
Pollard, R. (2002). Evidence of a reduced home advantage when a team moves to a new stadium.
Journal of Sports Science,20, 969–973
Recht, L. D., Lew, R. A., & Schwartz, W. J. (1995). Baseball teams beaten by jet lag.Nature,377,