The Kicking Ladder
Which stadiums are actually hard to kick in — and which ones just have the reputation.
24,307 field goals and 57,439 punts from nflverse play-by-play, 2002-2025, across 36 venues. Every kick is scored against a distance-and-season model refit for each venue with that venue's own kicks held out, so no stadium is graded against itself.
The Kicking Ladder
Actual minus expected field goal percentage for VISITING kickers, so no venue is graded on its home team's kicker. Expectation comes from a distance-and-season model refit for each venue with that venue's own kicks held out. Bars left of zero are harder than the league, right of zero easier; venues within a point of expectation are drawn in neutral chalk. 36 venues shown.
Teams Price the Building In
Each dot is a venue. Across the 36 venues shown, the harder a stadium is on visiting kickers, the less often its own home team attempts a 50-yard field goal on fourth down — r = +0.64, p < 0.0001. New England sits at the far end of both axes: the hardest venue in the league, and a home team that attempted 6.9% of its long chances against a league home rate of 18.4%.
Gillette Stadium
| Visiting kickers | 79.3% | -6.5 pp |
| Home kickers | 87.0% | -1.1 pp |
| Home minus visitor | — | +5.4 pp |
| Rank on visiting kickers | — | 1 of 36 |
| Inside 30 yds | n=98 | +1.1 pp |
| 30–39 yds | n=102 | -8.1 pp |
| 40–49 yds | n=120 | -11.5 pp |
| 50+ yds | n=43 | -5.9 pp |
| Gross punt distance | -0.90 yds |
| Kickoff carry | -0.51 yds |
| Touchback rate | 51.4% |
| Visiting kickers in 15+ mph wind | -13.7 pp |
| Misses that were wide, not short | 72.0% |
| Home team's 50+ attempt rate | 6.9% |
| Direction-of-play split | -6.6 pp |
Punt and kickoff figures are yards above or below what the same kick is worth elsewhere. The direction-of-play split compares visiting kickers in Q2+Q4 against Q1+Q3 — teams swap ends each quarter, so a large split points at one end of the stadium being worse than the other.
Pick any venue in the table below to load its profile here. Punt distance and kickoff carry are aerodynamic probes — nobody is aiming at uprights — so they test whether a venue is genuinely hard on ball flight rather than merely unlucky.
Every Venue, Every Measure
| Venue | Team | Roof | Seasons | Vis. att | Vis. FG% | vs exp | Home vs exp | Gap | Punt | Home 50+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gillette Stadium | NE | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 363 | 79.3% | -6.5 pp | -1.1 pp | +5.4 pp | -0.90 yds | 6.9% |
| Soldier Field | CHI | outdoors | 2003–2025 | 355 | 82.5% | -4.1 pp | -0.9 pp | +3.2 pp | -1.53 yds | 11.9% |
| Cleveland Browns Stadium | CLE | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 356 | 81.2% | -3.9 pp | -3.3 pp | +0.6 pp | -0.77 yds | 11.3% |
| Oakland-Alameda County Stadium | LV | outdoors | 2002–2019 | 278 | 81.3% | -3.7 pp | -0.8 pp | +2.9 pp | +0.92 yds | 25.0% |
| Lambeau Field | GB | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 343 | 82.2% | -2.9 pp | -3.0 pp | -0.1 pp | -1.08 yds | 10.7% |
| Levi's® Stadium | SF | outdoors | 2014–2025 | 173 | 83.8% | -2.9 pp | +5.0 pp | +7.9 pp | +0.16 yds | 23.9% |
| Commanders Field | WAS | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 371 | 83.0% | -2.5 pp | -4.8 pp | -2.3 pp | -0.55 yds | 9.0% |
| Giants Stadium | NYG/NYJ | outdoors | 2002–2009 | 230 | 81.7% | -2.3 pp | -1.7 pp | +0.6 pp | -1.83 yds | 8.5% |
| Raymond James Stadium | TB | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 366 | 83.6% | -2.0 pp | -3.1 pp | -1.1 pp | +0.05 yds | 19.7% |
| Lumen Field | SEA | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 394 | 83.0% | -1.9 pp | +2.0 pp | +3.9 pp | -0.36 yds | 13.6% |
| Candlestick Park | SF | outdoors | 2002–2013 | 171 | 83.0% | -1.9 pp | +2.1 pp | +4.1 pp | +0.21 yds | 16.4% |
| Acrisure Stadium | PIT | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 338 | 83.7% | -1.5 pp | +0.9 pp | +2.4 pp | -1.15 yds | 17.9% |
| Hard Rock Stadium | MIA | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 387 | 83.5% | -1.1 pp | -0.4 pp | +0.8 pp | +1.12 yds | 17.2% |
| Highmark Stadium | BUF | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 330 | 84.8% | -1.1 pp | -4.4 pp | -3.3 pp | -0.95 yds | 14.3% |
| Qualcomm Stadium | LAC | outdoors | 2002–2016 | 199 | 84.4% | -1.0 pp | +0.3 pp | +1.3 pp | +0.12 yds | 13.4% |
| State Farm Stadium | ARI | closed | 2006–2025 | 334 | 85.0% | -0.6 pp | -1.4 pp | -0.7 pp | +0.96 yds | 16.3% |
| Ford Field | DET | dome | 2002–2025 | 364 | 83.2% | -0.1 pp | +5.5 pp | +5.6 pp | +0.33 yds | 26.3% |
| Lucas Oil Stadium | IND | closed | 2008–2025 | 286 | 84.6% | -0.1 pp | +3.2 pp | +3.3 pp | +0.72 yds | 28.6% |
| GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium | KC | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 378 | 84.7% | -0.1 pp | -1.5 pp | -1.4 pp | +0.30 yds | 16.7% |
| Paycor Stadium | CIN | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 380 | 87.1% | 0.0 pp | -0.9 pp | -0.8 pp | -0.68 yds | 14.8% |
| MetLife Stadium | NYG/NYJ | outdoors | 2010–2025 | 550 | 86.5% | 0.0 pp | -1.9 pp | -1.9 pp | -0.26 yds | 18.8% |
| Nissan Stadium | TEN | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 373 | 86.6% | 0.0 pp | +1.9 pp | +1.9 pp | +0.73 yds | 10.2% |
| Bank of America Stadium | CAR | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 382 | 85.3% | +0.3 pp | +3.4 pp | +3.1 pp | +0.35 yds | 19.1% |
| M&T Bank Stadium | BAL | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 366 | 85.2% | +0.5 pp | +3.9 pp | +3.4 pp | -0.10 yds | 21.3% |
| Lincoln Financial Field | PHI | outdoors | 2003–2025 | 319 | 86.5% | +1.2 pp | 0.0 pp | -1.2 pp | -1.14 yds | 12.5% |
| EverBank Stadium | JAX | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 350 | 86.3% | +1.5 pp | +0.1 pp | -1.4 pp | +0.40 yds | 18.9% |
| Caesars Superdome | NO | dome | 2002–2025 | 368 | 86.4% | +1.6 pp | -2.6 pp | -4.2 pp | -0.31 yds | 21.7% |
| Georgia Dome | ATL | dome | 2002–2016 | 199 | 85.4% | +2.0 pp | +1.0 pp | -1.0 pp | +0.65 yds | 13.7% |
| U.S. Bank Stadium | MIN | dome | 2016–2025 | 189 | 87.3% | +2.2 pp | +0.3 pp | -2.0 pp | -0.22 yds | 34.0% |
| AT&T Stadium | DAL | closed | 2009–2025 | 263 | 88.2% | +2.4 pp | +4.5 pp | +2.0 pp | +0.74 yds | 34.7% |
| Mall of America Field | MIN | dome | 2002–2013 | 170 | 84.7% | +2.7 pp | +6.4 pp | +3.7 pp | +0.45 yds | 14.1% |
| NRG Stadium | HOU | closed | 2002–2025 | 371 | 86.0% | +2.8 pp | +0.1 pp | -2.7 pp | +0.58 yds | 21.6% |
| Edward Jones Dome | LA | dome | 2002–2015 | 221 | 84.6% | +3.0 pp | +5.8 pp | +2.8 pp | +1.32 yds | 34.9% |
| Empower Field at Mile High | DEN | outdoors | 2002–2025 | 399 | 86.2% | +3.2 pp | +1.9 pp | -1.3 pp | +1.94 yds | 31.7% |
| SoFi Stadium | LA/LAC | dome | 2020–2025 | 207 | 89.9% | +3.5 pp | +1.1 pp | -2.4 pp | -0.02 yds | 23.1% |
| Mercedes-Benz Stadium | ATL | closed | 2017–2025 | 160 | 91.2% | +5.4 pp | +3.6 pp | -1.8 pp | -0.39 yds | 40.0% |
Sorted by the selected column. Click any row to load that venue above. Positive means easier than the rest of the league.
What the numbers can and cannot say
Venues differ; home-field kicking edges mostly do not. Across 36 venues the spread of visiting-kicker penalties is larger than chance allows (p = 0.006), so some stadiums really are harder than others. But the spread of home-minus-visitor gaps is not (p = 0.202, mean +0.8 pp, sd 2.9 pp). Difficulty is real. Asymmetry is mostly noise.
Someone has to finish last. With 36 venues in the pool, one of them will look extreme by luck alone. Only Gillette Stadium survives correction for having searched all of them.
Sample sizes are small. A venue gets roughly 20 visiting field goal attempts a season. Even the biggest sample here is 550 kicks across two decades, and the distance-band and direction splits divide that further. Treat single cells as suggestive, not settled.
Blocked kicks are excluded. A block is a line-of-scrimmage failure rather than an aiming one, so it says nothing about the venue.