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I only allowed one vote, but feel free to rank the four in your posts and tell why you ranked them that way.

I'd go:

1. Football - crowd noise affects visitors offense, various field conditions (dome, turf, grass, weather) can disrupt the visitors

2. Hockey - home team gets last crack at setting lines before each faceoff to maximize matchups, home team gets choice of order in shootouts

3. Baseball - teams are built to capitalize on ballpark dimensions, home team gets last crack at scoring

4. Basketball - other than an amped crowd, I don't see where there are many other tangible benefits for the home team

93henfan wrote:I'd go:

1. Football - crowd noise affects visitors offense, various field conditions (dome, turf, grass, weather) can disrupt the visitors

2. Hockey - home team gets last crack at setting lines before each faceoff to maximize matchups, home team gets choice of order in shootouts

3. Baseball - teams are built to capitalize on ballpark dimensions, home team gets last crack at scoring

4. Basketball - other than an amped crowd, I don't see where there's many other tangible benefits for the home team

I would have to agree, but I will wait for my Iowa brethren to let me know what the correct answer should be.

Baseball

In a tie game the home team always has the ball on offense with a chance to win the game.

The equal in football would be if every OT was sudden death and the home team always got to start with the ball.

Huge advantage in close games, besides the fact that if ahead the home team has the power to shorten the game by 1/2 inning, or roughly 6% of the games full allotted distance. That's the equal of just ending a basketball game with 6% of the game left anytime the home team has the lead.

I guess it depends on the level of play. In high school/college basketball teams can have a nice advantage due to arena size. If you've ever played in a hotbox gym with the fans right on the court then you know how tough it can be to win on the road. Especially when idiots are close enough to touch players when inbounding the ball or are able to affect freethrows. But overall I think football has the biggest advantage due to crowd noise and weather.

I voted for basketball, but more specifically college basketball. Football has the added benefit of being played outdoors (at least real football ) which can definitely add in the extra element of the weather, especially if going from a very warm to a very cold place, or vice versa. Momentum is definitely a major factor in football (see South Dakota St vs Montana) but basketball, especially at the collegiate level is all about runs, and containing runs. There aren't other sports where coaches call timeouts specifically to try to take the crowd out of the game. Old players don't feed of the emotions of the crowd as much generally, but younger kids (frosh, sophs) oftentimes really, really feed off the crowd energy. In this case I don't think it so much adversely effects the visiting team as it has a positive effect on the home team.

OSBF wrote:besides the fact that if ahead the home team has the power to shorten the game by 1/2 inning, or roughly 6% of the games full allotted distance. That's the equal of just ending a basketball game with 6% of the game left anytime the home team has the lead.

I don't really see the "shortening the game" thing in baseball to be an advantage.
There is zero chance of the fielding team being able to score runs, so playing the bottom of the 9th when the home team has the lead has no merit.

The comparison to basketball is invalid, since the road team still has the possibility of scoring during that final 6% of the game.

93henfan wrote:I'd go:

1. Football - crowd noise affects visitors offense, various field conditions (dome, turf, grass, weather) can disrupt the visitors

2. Hockey - home team gets last crack at setting lines before each faceoff to maximize matchups, home team gets choice of order in shootouts

3. Baseball - teams are built to capitalize on ballpark dimensions, home team gets last crack at scoring

4. Basketball - other than an amped crowd, I don't see where there are many other tangible benefits for the home team

well there is the hometown clock operator who will either try delaying starting the clock a second if the home team is down 1 with 1.1 seconds left or starting it a bit early if the visiting team is down 1 with 1.1 seconds left.

If I was ambitious, I'd compile (or find someone else's) compilation of stats for the major sports, comparing overall winning percentage of home teams to see how they compared between the sports.


But I'm not.

UNHWildCats wrote: well there is the hometown clock operator who will either try delaying starting the clock a second if the home team is down 1 with 1.1 seconds left or starting it a bit early if the visiting team is down 1 with 1.1 seconds left.

Valid point, which also can apply to football (and hockey, though I haven't noticed it much there).

There is also the matter in hockey of how the puck behaves differently in different rinks, given the configuration/condition of the boards and/or the glass (and supports). Certainly gives the home team a familiarity advantage if they play in a rink with alot of quirks.