Home advantage and crowd attendance: Evidence from rugby during the Covid 19 pandemic

TL;DR

This study investigates how the absence of crowds during the COVID-19 pandemic affected the home advantage in rugby, revealing that home teams won fewer matches and had smaller point differences without spectators.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the impact of crowd attendance on home advantage by analyzing rugby match data during the pandemic.

Findings

Home teams won fewer matches during the pandemic.

Points difference for home teams decreased without crowds.

Crowd presence significantly influences home advantage in rugby.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced almost all professional and amateur sports to be played without attending crowds. Thus, it induced a large-scale natural experiment on the impact of social pressure on decision making and behavior in sports fields. Using a data set of 1027 rugby union matches from 11 tournaments in 10 countries, we find that home teams have won less matches and their points difference decreased during the pandemics, shedding light on the impact of crowd attendance on the {\em home advantage} of sports teams.