i used to be sc_owl

Thank you, but I think those days are in the past now. I’m settled in a routine and don’t fancy rocking the boat too much.

Just replied with some detail about the study.

From what I remember, the concept of Home Advantage is real, but it wasn't as pronounced as I expected. Also, those with a better level of home advantage had a higher proportion of long-term season ticket holders as part of their overall crowd. Absolute numbers in terms of attendance did not seem to impact on home advantage and it was tricky untangling causality. The placement of home fans across all four sides of the ground has a slight impact. I looked at a lot of other, minor, details, but I'm going back over a decade now. EDIT: One thing that I learned is that the average football fan had no idea about which clubs had the best home advantage. They'd look at Manchester United (for example) and see that they win 17 of their 19 home games. "Wow, that's crazy home advantage!" But when you drill down into goals scored, conceded, points won, games with losing etc, you're actually comparing home form versus away form. Many of the better teams seemingly had lower levels of home advantage because the quality of their players meant their home and away form was largely similar. No desire to work in the game. I wanted to get into research and lecturing, but then my mental health tanked. So now, I'm putting my number crunching skills to practice through investing with the goal of retiring early.

I'm not taking it personally. It's one of those things. I wrote to every club that had competed in the top two divisions over a three-year period. I can't recall the exact numbers, but something like 50% responded. Only one response was a decline (Wolves). The rest were eager to take part. Some clubs sent back my questionnaire completed with a basic cover letter. Others though, such as Burnley (Championship club at the time) took a great deal of time out and sent me back my questionnaire plus a huge amount of additional information that helped with the research. From memory, Chelsea also sent back a highly detailed reply, as did Manchester City who gave me a full breakdown of all the info I requested as well as a full copy of the schedule and notes from the stadium announcer on match day. The thing is, it was years ago but even now I still have something of a soft spot for those clubs who did reply. I'm sure that there are many people who do write/call in for work experience and the like. This was different though; an official study back by a university that would be going through peer review with the hope of being published. There were some big names in the world of sport psychology linked to the study. I don't blame any club for not taking part, nor do I hold a grudge. But think about it this way, for a smaller club at the time like Wigan, Bolton, or Burnley, this research (if taken on board) might, stress might, have earned them an extra few points over the course of a season. Forward thinking clubs will look for an edge wherever they can find it, even if it's just squeezing out an extra 2% because that tiny extra bit of edge can be the difference between relegation or survival, or winning the title or finishing 3rd. Clubs will happily spend thousands of £££ on journeymen players, when for a fraction of that they could employ a few more admin staff and a few more data analysts.

Anyone using the phrase “happy clappers” should be banned for no less than seven generations.

What’s wrong with plugging my blog?

I remember Wolves replying along the lines of, “we’re far too big a club to take part.” Felt like forwarding the letters I got from the other huge clubs.

I don’t have the time or motivation to do that. I approached SWFC a few years ago to ask if they wanted to take part in a study on home advantage. They ignored me. Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal, and 20+ other Prem and Champ clubs took part. Even our cross city rivals. When I started publicising the study and, in general terms, the results, guess who came asking for the results? SWFC. I was looking at how stadium design, placement of fans, pre match and half time routines etc impact on home advantage, or how to make your stadium a fortress. It was fascinating research.

Don’t want to derail the thread but just a brief reply… I might not achieve the goal by 40, but even so, I’ll be in a better position. Between myself and my investment partner, we can almost certainly acquire two more BTL before the end of 2022. At that point, it snowballs very quickly. If you (or anyone) wants to chat about it in more detail, just drop me a message.

Life would be boring if we all liked the same thing. Thanks for checking it out though.

Awful.

90% of my online activity is sh*tposting and winding people up.