SPT 210 - Sports Geography

3 credit hours - Three hours of lecture weekly; one term.
Apply a geographic perspective to worldwide sports, with an emphasis on the United States. Analyze the spatial distribution and interaction of sports. Assess the impact of regional differences, economics and geography along with fan and player demographics.

Prerequisite(s): Eligibility for ENG 101 /ENG 101A .

Course Outcomes:

Introduce Geography and Human/Cultural Geography.
- Define Geography and Human/Cultural Geography.
- Explain basic Geography Theories.
- Explain basic Human/Cultural Geography Theories.
- Give an overview of how geography and sports will be studied together.
Introduce Sports Geography.
- Explain the three basics of Sports Geography.
- Define the Body Cultural Trialectic Theory and how it relates to sports and real world phenomena.
- Explain why studying Sports Geography is important.
Discuss the differences between place and space regarding sports.
- Answer the question as to why certain sports are played in particular areas.
- Evaluate the performance of teams with regards to distance.
- Discuss the emotion and place feeling sports brings to players and fans.
Understand how sports have diffused to other locations and modernized throughout time; understand how globalization has influenced sports.
- Identify why and how particular sports began in particular areas.
- Evaluate the diffusion of sports to other places.
- Discuss the ways that globalization has influenced sports.
Explain and identify how particular regions are influenced by sports.
- Understand Environmental Determinism and how it was applied to the sports World.
- Understand the Spatial Analytic Approach and how it is applied to the sports World.
- Apply Jokl’s Information Theory and Rooney’s Per Capita Index Theory to identity why particular regions produce athletes of a certain sports.
- Understand how participation of sports varies across the World.
- Learn about the core, semi-periphery, and periphery of regions; apply these three concepts to sports.
Study demographic variations among the fans and the players of various sports.
- Identify the past demographics of fans and players.
- Examine the current demographics of fans that attend sporting events.
- Evaluate how the demographics of fans and players changed over time for particular sports.
Study the different economic impacts of sports and the economic influence on different locations and urban landscapes.
- Understand the Central Place Theory and apply it to understand how cities have expanded overtime.
- Examine the demand for sports in particular areas and where sports are distributed.
- Use the Rothman’s Southernness Index and the Sports Facility Residents Impact Theory to examine why sports and facilities are situated in particular areas.
- Understand why stadiums and sites are situated in particular locations, along with how they impact an area economically.
- Examine how sports stadiums and sites are positive/negative for cities by examining economic and market theories.
- Apply the Five Stage of Sport Spectator Experience to the economics of Sports Geography.
- Use Economic Urban Geography theories to understand why sports teams relocate.
Evaluate how sports have impacted the physical environment over time.
- Evaluate how the physical environment has changed due to sports.
- Understand how stadiums have changed overtime using the Four Stage Model of Stadiums.
- Know the location of sites for sporting events and stadiums.
- Review place feeling and apply it to stadiums and sites where sporting events take place.
Examine the imaginative geographies of sport.
- Examine mental maps and images regarding sports.
- Understand imaginative geography and the future.
- Study what the future holds for Sports Geography.