Home Advantage, Crowding, and Gender Referee: Evidence From Major Women's Leagues

This article explores the presence of home advantage concerning both team performance and referee decisions in major women's soccer leagues. Specifically, we investigate whether this phenomenon is associated with crowding, using stadium attendance density as an explanatory factor, moving beyond the binary distinction between open and closed doors. Drawing on a unique data set spanning various women's soccer leagues from 2018 to 2023, our findings indicate that teams in densely populated stadiums demonstrate enhanced performance across all examined indicators. This underscores the significance of stadium noise, rather than merely the presence of fans, in influencing home team performance. Additionally, a slight home advantage in terms of referee decisions is observed exclusively in matches officiated by male referees, regardless of stadium crowds. This suggests that male referees may experience heightened home pressure compared to their female counterparts.