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Definitely hard-coded. But I have a feeling they got Google employees to choose places on the maps by telling them to choose places they like or something like that (without mentioning what project this is for).

The reason I think so, is because some places seem to be residential, like they're places you would live at.

I found one in the football stadium of University of Wisconsin, but none in my area (a similarly-sized city).

That doesn't really seem to be the way they are spread out. There's some in major cities like Seattle and Portland. Then there's some at recognizable landmarks. Tokyo Tower, CERN, Area 51, Roswell etc.

I hardly found any in Paris, myself. A bunch near the Google offices in Mountain View and Roppongi - maybe it's using past visited location data?

I caught about 25 Pokemon in Sydney though!