ホームアドバンテージ (Home Advantage) と観衆要因に関する研究

Home advantage is the term used to describe the phenomenon in which home teams win over 50% of the games played under a balanced home and away schedule. The phenomenon of home advantage was well documented in the late 1970s in a variety of sports at college and professional levels. The main purpose of this research was to determine whether home advantage exists in professional baseball and soccer in Japan. The percentages of games won at home were compared between the two sports. The second purpose was to examine the relative influence of a number of factors associated with crowd presence (absolute size of the crowd and crowd size relative to stadium capacity) on game outcome. Archival data were obtained for three seasons (1993/94/95 in both sports ; N=2, 037 games in baseball, N=611 games in soccer). The results of this study indicate that home advantage exists in professional baseball and soccer in Japan. Statistical evidence suggests that crowd factors do not present significant contributions to home advantage in Japanese professional baseball and soccer