IN the movie The American President, it was said that the White House was built and designed to humble and intimidate foreign heads of state. In sports, home stadiums, home fields and home courts were also built and designed to intimidate visiting teams.
The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) old Boston Garden housed one of the league’s most passionate and rabid fans who cheered and rooted the Celtics for 33 years from 1962 until its demolition in 1995. Reportedly, there have been stories of heaters that suddenly shut off by themselves during chilly nights in the visiting team’s locker room.
The parquet floor at the Garden was allegedly uneven to favor the home team. According to numerous sources, opponents dreaded the “curse of the leprechaun” and the “luck of the Irish”. The old Boston Garden was one of the loudest then and it still is now but at the Celtics’ home since 1995, the Fleet Center.
The old Chicago stadium was, to many Bulls fans, the house that Michael Jordan built, same as Yankee stadium being the house that Babe Ruth built.
They called Chicago’s Stadium the “Madhouse on Madison” as it was located on Madison Avenue in the city of Chicago. The Chicago stadium was replaced by the United Center.
The Detroit Pistons used to play at the Pontiac Silverdome, home of the National Football League’s Detroit Lions. Seating capacity there is 80,000 but the Pistons only needed half of it—but that half was more than enough to intimidate visiting teams.
In the US NCAA, the Syracuse University Orangemen played their home games at the Carrier Dome, which seats 35,446 and is packed every time the Orangemen have home games. It is one of the toughest places for visiting school-teams.
In European football, Camp Nou, home of many-time Spanish La Liga champions Barcelona, can seat as many as 100,000 people, which can be overwhelming if you’re a visiting team.
Other notables in the US NCAA are Cameron Indoor Stadium of the many-time national champions Duke Blue Devils and Allen Fieldhouse, home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks.
All of the sports teams I’ve mentioned are very successful. If you have that many people cheering and rooting for you, you really have no excuse not to go all out and compete.
For the team owners and university presidents, you owe it to these loyal rabid fans to put the best product on the floor day in and day out, night in and night out.