The home town and/or home field is huge in so many sports. Major League Baseball's a good example. Teams play 162 games in a grueling regular season but even if a team locks up a playoff berth early there's no letting up as teams pursue that coveted home field advantage. Baseball even attaches home field advantage for its World Series as the prize for the winning team in the annual mid-summer All-Star game just to add meaning to the outcome of that exhibition.
In the National Football League the home field advantage is huge, so again it becomes a perk for the winningest teams each season. The enthusiasm of the campus setting makes the home school's advantage maybe even more prevalent in college football and basketball. Just look at the odds on major college football games and you'll see that the odds makers figure the home field is worth an extra three to seven points, often the difference between a win and a loss.
While not as drastic of an impact in motor sports there are plenty of examples of a hometown edge there as well. It can come from having driven the area speedway thousands of more laps over the years than the competition and knowing every bump and nuance of that specific track or it can be as simple as enjoying the comforts of home and friends and family leading up to race day instead of waking up in a motor coach or another strange hotel room on race day.
We've seen many examples of a hometown advantage in Monster Jam as well. Scott Hartsock is one driver who comes to mind quickly when you consider those who have found some of their greatest successes closest to home. The driver of the Gunslinger Ford has been a national contender for more than a decade and has had lots of success all over the country. He was even the runner-up in the battle for the first World Racing Championship in Las Vegas. But there is no doubt that Hartsock's success rate skyrockets when he competes in his home state of Florida. Many of Gunslinger's greatest victories against the best in business have come in Orlando's Citrus Bowl or Tampa's Raymond James Stadium, the two closest major venues to his home base.
Team Scream has been turning Ford Field in Detroit into their home field for years. There are now sections in that state-of-the-art home of the NFL Lions that are completely filled with boisterous fans cheering for Avenger and Brutus at each Detroit event these days, thousands of fans from in and around the Columbus, Michigan headquarters of that team. You see quickly what all of that fan support means to Jim Koehler and Chris Bergeron when they get on the microphone and talk to the crowd. If you think that pair is off the charts on a weekly basis you should see their intensity soar in the Motor City. I think it was at an event in the suburban Detroit Silverdome many years ago where I first dubbed Koehler "Mr. Excitement". That home state support seems to send Koehler and Bergeron to an even zanier level than normal, which is really saying something.
Even Tom Meents has created a home area advantage over the years. His 8 World Championships may make Las Vegas feel like home and we've often referred to the annual sold out events in the Atlanta Georgia Dome as the "House that Tom Meents built" due to his long winning streak and incredible run of freestyles there. But you can't find a major event city where Tom has been more dominant than Indianapolis. Not coincidentally, Indy is the closest big stadium event to his Paxton. Illinois, home and again there are thousands of fervent Maximum Destruction fans from through Illinois and Indiana who have flocked to the RCA Dome over the years and now help to sell out beautiful Lucas Oil Stadium to cheer for their own Monster Jam hometown hero.
The thrill of the hometown Monster Jam is not just for the drivers though. Of course the millions of the sport's fans get excited when Monster Jam comes to their hometowns. That thrill is the same for those of us non-drivers who are involved in the sport as well.
For yours truly, that hometown Monster Jam is just around the corner, October 23 and 24 at Louisville Freedom Hall. It's an event that I have announced many times during my 22 years in this business and for me it's every bit as thrilling, maybe even more so, then it was when I first grabbed the microphone in that building in the fall of 1988. In many ways it's the same feelings for me as it is for the drivers, being a part of all the excitement with my family and friends there in the stands to enjoy live what I have the privilege to do all year long. Even though I've actually announced more events in Houston and Detroit than I have here, and even considering that my good fortune has allowed me to be a part of all 10 World Finals, there's still nothing quite like the hometown Monster Jam. For me that's coming right up in Freedom Hall, and I can't wait to get it started!
