Home-Court Advantage and the Associations of Travel and Jet Lag with Team Performance in the Women's National...

Travel-related fatigue and circadian disruption (i.e., jet lag) are well-established factors limiting performance in elite men's sport and are recognized contributors to home advantage. Yet evidence from women's professional leagues remains scarce.

This study examined temporal trends in home-court advantage and assessed how cumulative travel burden and directional jet lag relate to performance in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

Game location, timing, and performance data from 3489 regular season WNBA games spanning 18 seasons (2007-2024) were analyzed using mixed-effects models adjusted for game time, team and opponent strength, and season. We quantified cumulative travel distance over the preceding seven days and directional jet lag based on eastward or westward travel adjusted for circadian resynchronization.

Home-court advantage declined significantly over time (β =  - 0.67, p = .002), from 64.3% in 2009 to 52.3% in 2024, coinciding with improved league-wide travel conditions. Greater recent travel distance was associated with worse performance among away teams (β = -0.04, p = .020), primarily driven by increased points conceded (β = 0.04, p = .018). Eastward jet lag was significantly associated with worse home team performance (β = -0.15, p = .049), with no such associations observed for westward jet lag or among away teams (all p ≥ .399).

These findings provide the first large-scale evidence linking travel and circadian disruption to performance in the WNBA. Although home-court advantage has declined, travel-related challenges persist. Incorporating circadian principles into travel and recovery protocols may help improve performance, particularly as game schedules grow more congested with league expansion.