Startseite Home advantage and crowd attendance: evidence from rugby during the Covid 19 pandemic
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

Home advantage and crowd attendance: evidence from rugby during the Covid 19 pandemic

  • Fernando Delbianco , Federico Fioravanti ORCID logo EMAIL logo und Fernando Tohmé
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 25. Januar 2023
Veröffentlichen auch Sie bei De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced almost all professional and amateur sports to be played without attending crowds. Thus, it induced a large-scale natural experiment on the impact of social pressure on decision making and behavior in sports fields. Using a data set of 1027 rugby union matches from 11 tournaments in 10 countries, we find that home teams have won less matches and their point difference decreased during the pandemic, shedding light on the impact of crowd attendance on the home advantage of sports teams.


Corresponding author: Federico Fioravanti, Instituto de Matemática de Bahía Blanca, CONICET – UNS, Bahía Blanca, Argentina; and Departamento de Matemática, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina, E-mail:

Acknowledgement

We want to thank an anonymous referee for its thoughtful comments, that helped to improve our work.

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

References

Agnew, G. A., and A. V. Carron. 1994. “Crowd Effects and the Home Advantage.” International Journal of Sport Psychology (25): 53–62.Suche in Google Scholar

Aguilar, Ó. G., J. J. F. Romero, and M. S. García. 2014. “Determination of the Home Advantage in Handball Olympic Games and European Championships.” Journal of Human Sport and Exercise 9 (4): 752–60. https://doi.org/10.14198/jhse.2014.94.02.Suche in Google Scholar

Balmer, N. J., A. M. Nevill, and A. M. Williams. 2001. “Home Advantage in the Winter Olympics (1908-1998).” Journal of Sports Sciences 19 (2): 129–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/026404101300036334.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

Balmer, N. J., A. M. Nevill, and A. M. Williams. 2003. “Modelling Home Advantage in the Summer Olympic Games.” Journal of Sports Sciences 21 (6): 469–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/0264041031000101890.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

Belchior, C. A. 2020. “Fans and Match Results: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Brazil.” Journal of Sports Economics 21 (7): 663–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002520930812.Suche in Google Scholar

Boudreaux, C. J., S. D. Sanders, and B. Walia. 2017. “A Natural Experiment to Determine the Crowd Effect upon Home Court Advantage.” Journal of Sports Economics 18 (7): 737–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002515595842.Suche in Google Scholar

Boyko, R. H., A. R. Boyko, and M. G. Boyko. 2007. “Referee Bias Contributes to Home Advantage in English Premiership Football.” Journal of Sports Sciences 25 (11): 1185–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410601038576.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

Brown, T. D.Jr., J. L. Van Raalte, B. W. Brewer, C. R. Winter, A. E. Cornelius, and M. B. Andersen. 2002. “World Cup Soccer Home Advantage.” Journal of Sport Behavior 25 (2): 134–44.Suche in Google Scholar

Bryson, A., P. Dolton, J. J. Reade, D. Schreyer, and C. Singleton. 2021. “Causal Effects of an Absent Crowd on Performances and Refereeing Decisions during Covid-19.” Economics Letters 198: 109664. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109664.Suche in Google Scholar

Carmichael, F., and D. Thomas. 2005. “Home-Field Effect and Team Performance: Evidence from English Premiership Football.” Journal of Sports Economics 6 (3): 264–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002504266154.Suche in Google Scholar

Cueva, C. 2020. Animal Spirits in the Beautiful Game. Testing Social Pressure in Professional Football during the Covid-19 Lockdown.10.31219/osf.io/hczkjSuche in Google Scholar

Dawson, P., P. Massey, and P. Downward. 2020. “Television Match Officials, Referees, and Home Advantage: Evidence from the European Rugby Cup.” Sport Management Review 23 (3): 443–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2019.04.002.Suche in Google Scholar

Downward, P., and M. Jones. 2007. “Effects of Crowd Size on Referee Decisions: Analysis of the Fa Cup.” Journal of Sports Sciences 25 (14): 1541–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410701275193.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

Endrich, M., and T. Gesche. 2020. “Home-Bias in Referee Decisions: Evidence from “Ghost Matches” during the Covid19-Pandemic.” Economics Letters 197: 109621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109621.Suche in Google Scholar

Ferreira Julio, U., V. L. G. Panissa, B. Miarka, M. Y. Takito, and E. Franchini. 2013. “Home Advantage in Judo: A Study of the World Ranking List.” Journal of Sports Sciences 31 (2): 212–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2012.725855.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

García, M. S., Ó. G. Aguilar, C. J. Vázquez Lazo, P. S. Marques, and J. J. Fernández Romero. 2013. “Home Advantage in Home Nations, Five Nations and Six Nations Rugby Tournaments (1883-2011).” International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport 13 (1): 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2013.11868631.Suche in Google Scholar

Gómez, M. A., R. Pollard, and J.-C. Luis-Pascual. 2011. “Comparison of the Home Advantage in Nine Different Professional Team Sports in spain.” Perceptual & Motor Skills 113 (1): 150–6. https://doi.org/10.2466/05.pms.113.4.150-156.Suche in Google Scholar

Jamieson, J. P. 2010. “The Home Field Advantage in Athletics: A Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 40 (7): 1819–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00641.x.Suche in Google Scholar

Jones, M. B. 2007. “Home Advantage in the NBA as a Game-Long Process.” Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports 3 (4), https://doi.org/10.2202/1559-0410.1081.Suche in Google Scholar

Kerr, J. H., and P. van Schaik. 1995. “Effects of Game Venue and Outcome on Psychological Mood States in Rugby.” Personality and Individual Differences 19 (3): 407–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(95)00044-7.Suche in Google Scholar

Krumer, A. 2017. “On Winning Probabilities, Weight Categories, and Home Advantage in Professional Judo.” Journal of Sports Economics 18 (1): 77–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002514560576.Suche in Google Scholar

Lambert, M., and M. Du Preez. 2007. “Travel Fatigue and Home Ground Advantage in South African Super 12 Rugby Teams.” South African Journal of Sports Medicine 19 (1): 20–2. https://doi.org/10.17159/2078-516x/2007/v19i1a271.Suche in Google Scholar

Legaz-Arrese, A., D. Moliner-Urdiales, and D. Munguía-Izquierdo. 2013. “Home Advantage and Sports Performance: Evidence, Causes and Psychological Implications.” Universitas Psychologica 12 (3): 933–43.10.11144/Javeriana.upsy12-3.haspSuche in Google Scholar

McCarrick, D., M. Bilalic, N. Neave, and S. Wolfson. 2021. “Home Advantage during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Analyses of European Football Leagues.” Psychology of Sport and Exercise 56: 102013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.102013.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

McCutcheon, L. E. 1984. “The Home Advantage in High School Athletics.” Journal of Sport Behavior 7 (4): 135.Suche in Google Scholar

Morton, R. 2006. “Home Advantage in Southern Hemisphere Rugby Union: National and International.” Journal of Sports Sciences 24 (5): 495–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410500189074.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

Neave, N., and S. Wolfson. 2003. “Testosterone, Territoriality, and the ‘home Advantage.” Physiology & Behavior 78 (2): 269–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-9384(02)00969-1.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

Nevill, A. M., R. L. Holder, A. Bardsley, H. Calvert, and S. Jones. 1997. “Identifying Home Advantage in International Tennis and Golf Tournaments.” Journal of Sports Sciences 15 (4): 437–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/026404197367227.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

Page, K., and L. Page. 2010. “Alone against the Crowd: Individual Differences in Referees’ Ability to Cope under Pressure.” Journal of Economic Psychology 31 (2): 192–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2009.08.007.Suche in Google Scholar

Page, L., and K. Page. 2010. “Evidence of Referees’ National Favouritism in Rugby.” In Working Paper Series, 62, NCER.Suche in Google Scholar

Pettersson-Lidbom, P., and M. Priks. 2010. “Behavior under Social Pressure: Empty Italian Stadiums and Referee Bias.” Economics Letters 108 (2): 212–4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2010.04.023.Suche in Google Scholar

Pojskić, H., V. Šeparović, and E. Užičanin. 2011. “Modelling Home Advantage in Basketball at Different Levels of Competition.” Acta Kinesiologica 5 (1): 25–30.Suche in Google Scholar

Ponzo, M., and V. Scoppa. 2018. “Does the Home Advantage Depend on Crowd Support? Evidence from Same-Stadium Derbies.” Journal of Sports Economics 19 (4): 562–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002516665794.Suche in Google Scholar

Reade, J. J., D. Schreyer, and C. Singleton. 2022. “Eliminating Supportive Crowds Reduces Referee Bias.” Economic Inquiry 60 (3): 1416–36.10.1111/ecin.13063Suche in Google Scholar

Sacheti, A., I. Gregory-Smith, and D. Paton. 2015. “Home Bias in Officiating: Evidence from International Cricket.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A 178: 741–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12086.Suche in Google Scholar

Schwartz, B., and S. F. Barsky. 1977. “The Home Advantage.” Social Forces 55 (3): 641–61. https://doi.org/10.2307/2577461.Suche in Google Scholar

Sedeaud, A., Q. De Larochelambert, J. Schipman, and J.-F. Toussaint. 2021. “The Covid-19 Pandemic Impact on Away and Home Victories in Soccer and Rugby Union.” Frontiers in Sports and Active Living 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.695922.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

Szabó, D. Z. 2022. “Impact of Differing Audience Sizes on Referees and Team Performance from a North American Perspective.” Psychology of Sport and Exercise 60, 102162.10.1016/j.psychsport.2022.102162Suche in Google Scholar

Taylor, J. B., S. D. Mellalieu, N. James, and D. A. Shearer. 2008. “The Influence of Match Location, Quality of Opposition, and Match Status on Technical Performance in Professional Association Football.” Journal of Sports Sciences 26 (9): 885–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410701836887.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

Thomas, S., C. Reeves, and A. Bell. 2008. “Home Advantage in the Six Nations Rugby Union Tournament.” Perceptual & Motor Skills 106 (1): 113–6. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.106.1.113-116.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed

Ungureanu, A. N., C. Lupo, and P. R. Brustio. 2021. “A Machine Learning Approach to Analyze Home Advantage during Covid-19 Pandemic Period with Regards to Margin of Victory and to Different Tournaments in Professional Rugby Union Competitions.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (23): 12711. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312711.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

Wolfson, S., D. Wakelin, and M. Lewis. 2005. “Football Supporters’ Perceptions of Their Role in the Home Advantage.” Journal of Sports Sciences 23 (4): 365–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410400021567.Suche in Google Scholar PubMed


Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/jqas-2021-0044).


Received: 2021-05-17
Revised: 2022-05-27
Accepted: 2022-12-16
Published Online: 2023-01-25
Published in Print: 2023-03-28

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 20.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jqas-2021-0044/html?lang=de
Button zum nach oben scrollen