NEW YORK (AP) — Playing at home hasn’t provided much comfort for WNBA teams this season.
Through nearly the first two weeks, home teams have only won about 29% of games. Out of the 15 teams, only New York has a winning record at home.
This is the worst percentage to start a season by home teams in the league’s 30-year history, according to Elias Sports Bureau stats provided to The Associated Press by the WNBA.
Through an equivalent number of games, the previous worst was 41% in 2021 — when fans weren’t allowed to attend games early on because of the COVID pandemic. Home teams won 43% of their games to start the 2016 season. Both those years the number reached over 50% by the end of the season. There was nearly a 54% home advantage in 2021 and 55% in 2016.
There are a lot of factors that go into the poor start at home so far, including scheduling. The expected top teams Las Vegas and New York have been on the road for most of the start of the season. That said, Chicago, which was near the bottom of the standings last year, went 3-1 on the road to begin this season.
“It’s bizarre and interesting, but I don’t think it signals a trend that will continue,” ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said. “We just need to have the better teams to have more home games.”
Golden State coach Natalie Nakase agreed she didn’t think the early trend would continue.
“I don’t put much stock in it,” said Nakase, who’s team visits New York on Thursday night. “I think it gives players that out to say that we have more advantage at home or we have more advantage away. I just say there’s two hoops, there’s a court, there’s a couple refs, and we got to play. At the end of the day, when you step on the court, you got to be ready to fight.”
One thing it’s not caused by is a lack of fans in the buildings. Attendance is up 6% so far this season compared to last year, according to the website Across The Timeline.
The second-year Valkyries have established quite a homecourt advantage. They led the league in attendance last year and so far have drawn well in their first two games at home.
“You also don’t want to take it for granted, you know, and take advantage of it,” she said. “But we do have the love of support that is, you know, amazing. But at the same time, you have to be able to handle the noise. So we try to prepare as best as we can.”
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