Benjamin Lee Eckstein, who gave us the nationally syndicated sports betting column America's Line, referred to both NFL and MLB teams that played their home games on artificial turf "as a visitor on the grass" whenever they had to play a road game on grass, and "as a visitor on the carpet" whenever a team that played on grass at home had to play a road game on artificial turf (although artificial turf has become an "endangered species" in baseball).
To which can be added "as a visitor in cold weather," applicable to any team (in the NFL only) that plays their home games either south of the Mason-Dixon Line (except for Maryland) or indoors whenever they have to play on the road outdoors and north of that line in November or later.
And one might gather that these teams don't do very well in these games. The chart below shows the most recent form of the 18 warm-weather and domed-stadium teams at northern, outdoor venues in November or later (playoff games included):
Only one of these 18 teams has a recent trend above .500 both straight up and against the spread — and that team barely qualifies as playing in a "warm-weather" venue (Seattle), and two other teams (Jacksonville and Atlanta) are just barely above .500 against the spread.
And in the playoffs, Sun Belt and indoor teams have gone 42-108 on the road at cold-weather venues in November or later since the first such game was played in 1950 — something to think about when the postseason rolls around. That's a .280 clip; since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, all road teams are 5649-7639-58 — a .426 winning percentage.
So there is no discounting that the weather advantage is real.
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