Over at SB Nation, Jon Bois did some number crunching to determine how much better a team would do if all their games were played at home. It only covers the last three seasons in each league, so 2010-2011 in the NBA and NBA are not yet included. That is to say, this is a really small sample size to make any sort of definitive judgments.
But let's take a look at what Bois has pieced together. He finds that an NBA team would win 10.11 percent more games if they were all at home, tops among the four major sports. The NFL, MLB and NHL follow in order. He then breaks this down by teams in each league.
The Nuggets would have won around 17.5 percent more games over the last three seasons if they were in the friendly confines of the Pepsi Center, tied for second with the Atlanta Hawks and the Indiana Pacers. The Denver Broncos would only have a 5 percent increase, which still wouldn't have saved Josh McDaniels from being fired. The Colorado Rockies would have had slightly under a nine percent increase in winning. The Avalanche would have seen a 7.5 percent increase, tied for fourth with the Carolina Hurricanes.
But also think about these numbers: 8, 41 and 81. Those are home games for the leagues (the NBA and NHL both have 41 home games), and don't forget one other number: 3. It's the dreaded small sample size. This is a good start, but how does this play out over a decade?
Still, we know that the Rockies historically are better at home than on the road, so the benefit there would be obvious. We have 18 years of data to show us that. And take a look at the Nuggets in 2010 so far. They are 18-4 at home and 5-13 on the road. There is a Mile High Advantage for Colorado teams, just as there is a home field advantage for other teams.