🗺️ CATEGORY 1: PINPOINT THE PLAY
$100 — The Starting Line
A basketball team is playing at a stadium located at 33°N, 84°W.
What do these two numbers tell us?
They give the stadium's absolute location using latitude and longitude.
$100 — Pick Your Home Court
A professional team wants to attract 50,000 fans to every home game.
Which location would probably be the best choice?
A. An isolated mountain valley with very few people
B. A large city with many people and transportation routes
C. A remote island
D. An area with no roads
B
$100 — Getting to the Game
A basketball team needs to transport uniforms, equipment, food, and merchandise to another city.
What environmental modification would make transportation easier?
Roads, railroads, rivers, airports, or other transportation routes.
$100 — Build the Field
A community wants to build a soccer field on land covered by trees.
What would people have to do to modify the environment?
Clear the land and prepare it for construction.
$100 — Home Advantage
A team wants to build a new stadium.
Name ONE geographic factor the team should consider before choosing its location.
Population, transportation, physical geography, climate, resources, etc.
$200 — Home Court
Your team is playing at 40°N, 74°W.
Which hemisphere is the stadium located in?
A. Northern & Eastern
B. Northern & Western
C. Southern & Eastern
D. Southern & Western
Northern & Western
$200 — Geography Matters
A football team has two choices for a new stadium.
Location A: Large city, highways, airport
Location B: Small town, few roads, far from other communities
Why would Location A probably attract more fans?
It has a larger population nearby and better transportation access.
$200 — River Route
A baseball stadium is located near a major river.
How could the river help the surrounding community?
It could provide transportation and support trade by allowing goods to move more easily.
$200 — Stadium Construction
A city wants to build a huge football stadium, but the land is uneven.
What might people do to prepare the land?
They might level, move, or reshape the land.
$200 — Choose Your Court
Two cities want to attract a professional basketball team.
City A: Large population, highways, airport, flat land
City B: Small population, mountains, few roads
Which city would probably be the easier place to build a successful franchise?
City A.
Why? More people and better transportation make it easier to attract fans and move people and goods.
$300 — Road Game
Two teams are traveling to different stadiums:
Both are at the same latitude.
What does that tell you about their locations?
They are at the same distance north of the Equator, but Stadium B is farther east and Stadium A is farther west.
$300 — The Fan Base
A professional team moves from a small rural town to a large city.
Predict one way the team's fan base might change and explain why.
The team could gain more fans because more people live nearby.
$300 — Road Game
A team must travel through a mountain range to reach its opponent.
How might the mountains affect the team's travel?
Mountains can make travel more difficult, slower, or require roads/tunnels/passes.
$300 — The Bridge
A new stadium is built across a river from a large population center.
What might people build to make it easier for fans to reach the stadium?
A bridge and/or roads.
$300 — The Stadium Problem
A city wants to build a stadium near a river because the location is excellent for transportation.
However, the area floods frequently.
What should the city do?
Explain one way people could modify the environment to reduce the problem.
Build levees, drainage systems, raise structures, improve flood control, etc.
$400 — Scouting the Location
A sports league is considering two locations:
City A: 30°N, 90°W
City B: 30°S, 90°W
The league wants to hold the same type of outdoor sporting event in both locations.
What major geographic difference should the league consider? Explain why it matters.
They are in opposite hemispheres. Their seasons would be opposite because one is north and the other is south of the Equator.
$400 — Geography Creates Opportunity
A soccer stadium is built near a major city, highway, airport, and train station.
Explain TWO ways this geographic location could help the team.
It makes it easier for fans to travel to games and makes it easier to move players, equipment, and supplies.
$400 — Trade-Off
A city is located along a major river but is surrounded by mountains.
Explain one advantage and one disadvantage this geography might create for a sports team.
Advantage: river access can support transportation/trade.
Disadvantage: mountains can make travel over land more difficult.
$400 — Humans Change the Game
A city builds a stadium, parking lots, roads, and train stations for a major sporting event.
Explain TWO ways humans have modified the environment.
They changed the land to construct buildings, roads, parking areas, train stations, etc.
$400 — Sports Geography Analyst
An international sporting event is being planned.
The organizers want:
Explain how geography could affect ALL FIVE of these goals.
Students should connect physical geography and human geography to population, transportation, trade, and construction.
$500 — Coordinate Challenge
A team owner says:
“Our new stadium is at 85°W, 34°N.”
Another owner says:
“That's impossible because latitude comes first.”
Who is correct? Explain.
The second owner is correct. Coordinates are normally written latitude first, then longitude: 34°N, 85°W.
$500 — Franchise Decision
A team owner says:
“We should build our stadium in the middle of nowhere because land is cheap.”
Do you agree or disagree?
Defend your answer using at least TWO geographic factors.
Possible factors: population, transportation, access to resources, trade, roads, physical geography.
$500 — Follow the Equipment
A company manufactures basketball shoes in one country, ships them to another country for packaging, and then sells them around the world.
Why is geography important to this process?
Geography affects transportation routes, access to resources, locations of businesses, and the movement of goods between places.
$500 — Was It Worth It?
A city wants to build a massive stadium in a natural area.
The stadium could bring thousands of visitors and create jobs, but construction would remove trees and change the land.
Should the city build it? Defend your answer using BOTH the benefits and possible environmental impacts.
Students can argue either way as long as they support their position with geographic evidence.
The New Franchise
You are the owner of a brand-new professional sports team.
You have two possible locations:
🏀 LOCATION A
🏀 LOCATION B
Your Challenge:
Which location should your team choose? Defend your decision using evidence from ALL THREE Chapter 2 concepts.
Your answer must explain:
1. Latitude & Longitude:
What does the location tell you?
2. Population & Trade:
How could geography affect fans, transportation, and the movement of goods?
3. People Modify the Environment:
What would humans need to change to build and operate the stadium?
🏆 Winning Answer
A strong response should sound like:
I would choose Location A because its geography would make it easier to build a successful sports franchise. Its latitude and longitude tell us exactly where the stadium would be located. Because it is near a large city, highway, airport, and river, many fans could reach the stadium and equipment and goods could be transported more easily. However, people would need to modify the environment by clearing land and preparing it for the stadium. Overall, Location A would provide more advantages for the team because of its population and transportation connections.