While the topic of a Millett renovation is going on, I was digging into the idea of home field advantage. There have been some interesting studies showing players don’t really perform differently on the road compared to at home, but that officials actually give slightly preferential calls to the home team. Expanding from there, a study was done of the Bundesliga showing that teams who had a track around their field had less advantage than teams without. So if it influences officials in the highest tier of German soccer, does a track around a basketball court (and fans further away) impact MAC officiating?
Dohmen found that home-field advantage was smaller in stadiums that happened to have a running track surrounding the soccer pitch, and larger in stadiums without a track.
Why?
Apparently, when the crowd sits closer to the field, the officials are more susceptible to getting caught up in the home-crowd emotion.