NBAhomeadvantage_final.jmp

NBA Team performance statistics were obtained for 32 regular seasons spanning most of the 3-point era (1983-84 to 2017-18). Preseason and playoff games were not included, nor were the 1998-99 and 2011-12 seasons which were shortened by lockouts. These data were downloaded directly from https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/tgl_finder.cgi (select: search for cumulative season games matching criteria). Specific statistics available are: number of wins, number of losses, field goals made, field goal attempts, field goal percentage, two-point shots made, two-point shot attempts, two-point shot percentage, three-point shots made, three-point shot attempts, three-point shot percentage, free-throw shots made, free-throw shot attempts, free-throw shot percentage, and total points scored. Downloading data for both home and away games provides shooting statistics in four categories: season performance at home (hereafter Home), performance away (hereafter Away), opponent performance at home (hereafter Home Opp), and performance away (hereafter Away Opp).

In addition to the team performance statistics, season attendance records were obtained for 18 seasons (2000-01 to 2017-18) from ESPN. These data were downloaded directly from http://www.espn.com/nba/attendance. Specific statistics available were: home team attendance, percent of stadium filled at home, away team attendance, and percent of stadiums filled away. To serve as a potential proxy for market size, metropolitan population data were downloaded for NBA cities for each decade (https://census.gov). NBA city elevations were found via USGS (https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/Elevations-Distances/elvadist.html).