eli5, apart from the psychological factor and weather, how does playing at home stadium affect a football game as compared to a sport where attributes of the home stadium affect the game in a much more nuanced manner like cricket ?

Question

eli5, apart from the psychological factor and weather, how does playing at home stadium affect a football game as compared to a sport where attributes of the home stadium affect the game in a much more nuanced manner like cricket ?

In: Other

Answer 1

Depends on the type of football.

For football as known by most of the world, it’s mostly psychology, but even small things like knowing where the goal is based on contextual clues in the stadium – just being used to how far everything is and what that means for remaining distance – would be helpful when you, for example, have your back to the goal.

For football as known to Americans, the same things apply, but also the quarterback needs to be able to give instructions pre-snap, which the home crowd will try to shout over and mess up. The loudest stadiums tend to be the ones opponents commit the most false starts in, and it’s no coincidence.