Did the Pandemic Solve One of Sports’ Weirdest Mysteries?

[yankees60]

Did the Pandemic Solve One of Sports’ Weirdest Mysteries?


Home-field advantage is real. Why?



https://slate.com/culture/2021/02/coron ... ml?via=rss



After going through this exercise, might is the word that keeps coming to the foreground. The pandemic has given strong backing to the idea that there’s something at play in home-field advantage that goes beyond the noise generated by boisterous fans. But as to what that something is, the pandemic has provided data points for and against every explanation.

Frenzied crowds, rulebook advantages, travel, environmental comfort, officiating bias. The truth is probably that a rotating but inconsistent mix of all of those different factors is combined to create a small but perceptible edge.

Pandemic sports have been a jarring spectacle, carried out on soundstages that bear little resemblance to the chaotic meccas where they are usually played. In many respects, they’ve existed in a separate reality from the one most of us have been inhabiting, where gathering even one time in a crowded space would be unthinkable.

There is little common ground between the recent experiences of sports teams and their public audiences, except for one thing: There is still value in the comforts of home

[Hal]

Vinny, I think this image is the weirdest mystery. I didn't see ladies like this even in the Army......
Think the next Tokyo Olympics is going to be a joke.

<edit> Added image of Japanese weightlifter

[Mark Leavy]

Vinny, I think this image is the weirdest mystery. I didn't see ladies like this even in the Army......
Think the next Tokyo Olympics is going to be a joke.

That Kiwi has a serious snatch.

[pp4me]

The advantage is sometimes presented in clichéd terms—“You don’t wanna play the Packers at Lambeau in the snow!”—and other times laid out empirically. The truisms and the data reinforce each other.

The Buccaneers had to do just that in the NFC championship game. Actually all 3 of their playoff games were on the road before getting to play the super bowl in their home stadium for the first time ever. Always exceptions to the rule, of course.