Sport Articles

By Josh

2025 Sep 2

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/17/mls-away-day-matches-fans

Recently, the MLS has shown a decrease in home win percentage of approximately 12%, from 56% to 44%. Why could this appearance have occurred? Behind this decrease, three reasons could have possibly led to the decrease in home win percentage: charter flights, a decrease in home-favorable decisions, and players’ preparation toward away games has also been enhanced. 

Charter flights may play a significant role in the performance of away players. The amount of traveling required for professional players is tremendous. Due to these flights and movements, the cumulative amounts of fatigue also proliferate. This fatigue can create a significant difference in players’ performance, and can affect on mental aspects of the players. These small differences can undermine the ability to concentrate fully on the game, and create small mistakes leading to crucial errors that can decide the result of the match. However, with charter flights, the fatigue would be less than on normal flights, as it provides a private, comfortable flight to the players. Audiences unfamiliar with this fatigue may think this doesn’t affect the players significantly. However, as an athlete who travels to away games by bus, the fatigue has a tremendous impact, making me perform much less compared to usual home games.

A decrease in home-favorable decisions occurred, providing fair conditions to both home and away teams. Throughout multiple years, there have been biased decisions favorable to home teams. This occurrence happens as crowd pressure exists. In the MLS, there are more than 20,000 fans in each game, and more than a third of them are home fans. If the home fans react to certain calls, the referee will automatically be intimidated, favoring the home team’s calls. However, naturally, the overall standard of referees also increases as the league’s overall level increases. The improved quality of the referees will consequently lead to fairer decisions toward away teams, too.

Players’ preparation also played a role in the decrease in home win percentage. MLS has been a small league even with several star players, but as time passes, the previous players who played in the league can mentor the next generation of players, providing insights and some possible answers on how to react to an away game. Mentoring can significantly influence players, as the mentored information can build up through the experiences of the young players and be disseminated, significantly benefiting the overall level of the league and promoting better away performances.

In conclusion, the roughly 12% drop in MLS home win percentage—from 56% to 44%—can be attributed to three main improvements: better travel conditions via charter flights, reduced referee bias favoring home teams, and enhanced preparation of visiting squads. Charter travel helps minimize physical and mental fatigue, allowing away players to perform closer to their top level. At the same time, more consistent officiating and mentoring of newer players by experienced ones have made road games more evenly contested than before.