Does artificial grass affect the competitive balance in major league soccer?
In this study I present cause for concern that Major League Soccer teams with an artificial grass (AG) home playing surface may possess an advantage over visiting teams used to playing on grass. I develop a theoretical model predicting the outcomes we should observe if teams with AG possess a competitive advantage. Using match-level data from the 2011-2014 Major League Soccer regular seasons, I find that conditional on attendance, distance traveled, and the difference in talent between the two teams, AG is uncorrelated with the final outcome of a match and the number of goals scored by each team. This suggests that AG does not affect the competitive balance in Major League Soccer.
© Copyright 2016 Journal of Sports Analytics. IOS Press. All rights reserved.
| Subjects: | |
|---|---|
| Notations: | sport games technical and natural sciences sports facilities and sports equipment |
| Tagging: | Heimvorteil |
| Published in: | Journal of Sports Analytics |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2016
|
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3233/JSA-160020 |
| Volume: | 2 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 73-87 |
| Document types: | article |
| Level: | advanced |