Sports-related question
 

From where comes the custom of listing the visiting team first, like in "Cardinals at Panthers". As usual, we do it differently in Europe. I was just curious in case anyone knew why?

If I had to guess?

The NHL began play in 1917. The NFL's inception was 1920. The NBA's roots go back to 1946.

MLB dates back to at least 1900 or so, making it the oldest of the four.

Additionally, it's the only one of the four that has rigid rules regarding who gets the first crack at scoring. NFL's got a coin-flip, NBA has a tipoff, and NHL has a faceoff. In all three of those leagues, it's possible for the home team to have the first opportunity to score.

Not so MLB, so listing the away team first just makes sense from the perspective of letting the casual observer know what's going on. Giants @ Dodgers tells you that the Giants are up first.

Packers @ Bears tells you that traffic in Ashwaubenon and Green Bay is probably going to be more manageable on a Sunday afternoon, but not much more than that, from a structural standpoint.

I've always just assumed it some sort of politeness...but I like the MLB angle where they were first (and had actual game logic to go that route) and then everybody else followed suit.

Side note: Once the game is over the politeness is over and the winning team is listed first.

If it's Green Bay @ Chicago then before the game it's "Green Bay at Chicago"....but after the game, if Chicago wins 24-3, it's never, ever, ever "Green Bay 3, Chicago 24". That something only moms are allowed to say...

I think it has to do with definitively conveying location and matchup.
Sure you could say Packers host Bears.
But if you just say Pack vs. Bears it is assumed to be AT GB..but when you say Chicago AT GB...then there is no doubt....

This is what I assumed, just an easy way to indicate who the home team is.

I also think it goes back to Baseball as box scores as early as I could find (1876) are set up this way.

Just to flip the question, curious if you now why the reverse is true in Europe?

Definitely relates to baseball where the visitors bat first so their name is on top on a proper scoreboard. So when football was played on the baseball fields in the winter, they usually used the existing scoreboard where the names were already in the proper order. Bringing sports indoors for basketball, why change? So the visitors' name remained on top.

I've always wondered who bats first in cricket--do they toss a coin or spin a peasant or something? If it is the visitors, why don't the Brits put that name on top?

Yeah, it's a coin toss in cricket to determine who bats first. No clue how the home - visitor order on the scoreboard became standard though. Probably a tradition so old there's no record how it started.