Friday, November 13, 2009

A Specific Home Field Advantage

Soccer-specific stadiums (SSS) are a very important to MLS by providing venues for a better game-day experience and helping to make the league more profitable, but do they help teams win games?  Recently I compared the 2009 regular season results of teams with a SSS against the teams without a SSS to see if there indeed were any trends.

Teams with a SSS
Total home wins = 63 
Total home loses = 22
Total home ties = 35

Winning % = 52.5%
Losing% = 18.3%
Points/Game = 1.87

Teams without a SSS
Total home wins = 44
Total home loses = 27
Total home ties = 33

Winning % = 42.3%
Losing % = 25.96%
Points/Game = 1.59

There is definitely a trend of better home results for teams with a SSS. The teams with a SSS won 10% more of their home games and lost 7.5% less home games.  Also teams with a SSS averaged 1.87 points a game at home while teams not having a SSS only average 1.59 points a game at home. The clubs with a SSS average 28 points (1.87*15) at home and the clubs without only 24(1.59*15). With the parity of MLS, 4 points can mean getting to the playoffs (5 teams with a SSS, 3 without a SSS) or having a longer off-season (3 teams with a SSS, 4 without a SSS).

Best Home Field Record = Real Salt Lake 2.13 Points/Game
Worst Home Field Record = Kansas City 1.07 Points/Game

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