There's No Place Like Home

So, last night I was watching the Pittsburgh Steelers vs Detroit Lions football game (Go Steelers!).  And at some point I was remembering the old Silverdome, the former home of the Detroit Lions.  I had an opportunity to visit the Silverdome back in the 1990's (but not during an event).  I remember thinking it was pretty far from Detroit......  Which got me thinking about teams that are near and far from their "homes".

So, ever the engineer, I decided to do an analysis.  Using google maps, I checked the driving distance from each team's stadium to the city that is home*.  What did I find?

Well over 1/3 of the teams (12/32 = 38%) are within 1.5 miles of city center.  That's within measumemnt error, IMHO.  Over 1/2 the (18/32 = 56%) are less that 5 miles away, and over 2/3 are within 10 miles (22/32 = 69%).  pretty good.

So, the most local are:
Vikings, Browns, Lions, Saints, Bengals, Colts, Panthers, Seahawks, Titans, Jaguars, Steelers and Ravens.  Interesting, that includes all of the AFC North Division.

And the least local?  Well, there are currently 6 teams that are over 15 miles from home.  And one of those (Chargers) are onlt temporary.  So, here's the bottom 5:

• San Francisco 49ers - 42.7 miles
• New England Patriots - 27.8 miles
• Dallas Cowboys - 18.3 miles
• Arizona Cardinals - 16.6 miles
• Miami Dolphins - 16.3 miles

Now, you may ask me "so what?"....  And I don't really have an answer. Besides I rather like it when a team is closely aligned with their town.....


* -  Some teams have regional names, like New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers.  But we all know that's really Boston, Nashville and Charlotte).