CROWD SIZE AND DENSITY IN RELATION TO ATHLETIC AGGRESSION AND PERFORMANCE

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Abstract
The records of 426 games played in the twelve team Western Hockey League provided the data for an investigation of the relationships between crowd size and density, and both player aggression (aggressive penalties) and performance (goals). Crowd size was negatively related to the aggression and performance of visiting teams while crowd density was negatively related to the overall performance of both teams. The present and earlier studies suggest an inverted-U function best describes the relationship between the full range of crowd size and player aggression. The importance of a game was negatively related to home team performance and positively related to that of the visitors. Player aggression increased with the number of times any two teams had previously met during the season while intradivisional rivalries were associated with more aggression than interdivisional games.