In team sports, the term home advantage (also called home field/court/diamond/ice advantage) describes the advantage–usually a psychological advantage–that the home team is said to have over the visiting team as a result of playing in familiar facilities and in front of supportive fans. The term is also widely used in "best-of" playoff formats (e.g., best-of-seven) as being given to the team that is scheduled to play one more game at home than their opponent if all necessary games are played.
In many sports, such designations may also apply to games played at a neutral site; as the rules of various sports make different provisions for home and visiting teams. In baseball, for instance, the team designated the home team bats second in each inning, whereas the "visiting" team bats first.
Read more about Home Advantage: Advantages of Being The Home Team, Gaining or Losing Home-field Advantage, Neutral Venues
Famous quotes containing the words home and/or advantage:
“I think when the full horror of being fifty hits you, you should stay home and have a good cry.”
—Alan Bleasdale (b. 1946)
“Beside all the moral benefit which we may expect from the farmer’s profession, when a man enters it considerately, this promised the conquering of the soil, plenty, and beyond this, the adorning of the country with every advantage and ornament which labor, ingenuity, and affection for a man’s home, could suggest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)