Beaver Stadium. 107,000 screaming fans cheering at the same time. There’s nothing like it, It’s undeniably the best home field advantage in the world. But Scientifically, is it? Beaver Stadium got up to a sound breaking 111 Decibels. Thats the equivalent of standing next to a power saw. The Seattle Seahawks have the credited “12th man”, and other stadiums have varying wind conditions or extreme cold. But what I want to know is which stadium (college or pro) has the best statistical advantage?
I decided to poll the Denver Bronco’s mile high stadium. Sitting at a mile up, I think that it has the best advantage in sports. from this blog at bowsite.com, the author says that a mile up, there is “17% less oxygen in the air [that you breathe] than at sea level”. This undoubtedly takes a toll on a player, particularly one who relies on his lungs on almost every play. The Denver Broncos are used to this altitude, while other teams are not. altitude sickness occurs when your brain doesn’t get the correct amount of oxygen that it’s used to to function. Conditions I personally have experienced from altitude sickness includes headaches, trouble sleeping, sleeping too much, and being completely unable to keep food or water down. this means that you could be out of condition for play and practice for an unknown mount of time. I was unable to find a record at home that I could put some stats to my hypothesis, but through logic I don’t see why there could be a difference when teams play in Denver, or even when the Broncos go down in altitude and gain oxygen.
Moral of the story here, why not take a chance and throw a couple Broncos into your fantasy lineup?
Home field advantage is HUGE. The energy the home crowd provides is sometimes key to a teams performance. I am an Eagles fan and when Sunday comes The Linc is always jumping. Players feed off the crowd and it seems their performance transcends to another level when the crowd really gets into the game. Here at Penn State, we are grateful to have such passionate fans and a great stadium that allows us to show our passion. One of my friends plays on the football team and he says the entire team loves walking into Beaver Stadium on those Saturdays. The only problem I have with your article is your closing sentence. After the Broncos performance today against the Ravens I would be scared of having some Broncos on your fantasy team. I have Owen Daniels and he did nothing. Demaryius Thomas also left injured and Manning didn’t look to sharp. Father time seems to finally be closing in on the legend.
The Colorado “mile high” approach was an interesting one, certainly something I would not have thought of. Throughout high school, I swam. For swimming, there is without a doubt a home pool advantage. All walls are different, some are slippery, some are angled, some have a lip or edge to grab onto during a turn while some are flat. I noticed this from swimming at various pools, and always had to practice my turns at the other pools’ walls during warmup. When I used to play soccer when I was little, there were also advantages. You know if the field has a slope, and how to use it to your advantage. For golf, you know how short the greens are, and must adjust your clubs and swing to the course. So I wouldn’t have thought about the Colorado or altitude advantage, but I 100% agree with home field advantage, especially through my experience with swimming and golfing.
Playing at altitude in any sport when you’re not used to it is horrible. I’ve also heard domes are pretty bad to play in because the noise just reverberates around the stadium. Autzen Stadium, where the Oregon Ducks play, is also supposed to be a crazy stadium to play in.