How do we make a gladiatorial arena more interesting than a hole in the ground filled with sand?

Instead of sand, grass, and instead of fighting, have groups of people trying to kick a ball into a rectangle at the other side.

>Labirinth inside the "Arena"
>Instead of walls you have moats
>Filled with piranhas

sandWURMS!

>gladiator combat to the death causes less violence than football fans
makes you thunk

To be honest I'm not even sure where you're getting this hole in the ground business from. Do you know about walls, OP?

Just fill the sand with something else other than sand and lions, retard.

Pitfall traps
Obstacles
Wooden structures

Chariot racing was worse.

youtube.com/watch?v=1Oq6vztcjgg

By flooding it and staging naval battles

By doing it like that actual collesieum which often had fortifications, obstacles, and could be filled with water for naval battles.

traps, surprise combatants, and some shit you would see in Madworld like Man Darts.

Trampolines.

...

The competitors fight over magical artifacts, while aided by various wonderous items of their own. Each warrior wagers one of his magical artifacts on the duel, with the winner keeping both. The battle may be a fight, a race to the prize artifact, or a puzzle to solve. The arena can be wildly different, based on the nature of the challenge.

...

OP was talking about the arena, not the gladiators I think. You might rape the building though if you want.

so Xaolin Showdown?

Unironically use all the show and spectacle surrounding modern wrassling. The stronger/more famous gladiators all have nicknames and a gimmick and all conform to either the heel or the face archetype, making them either loved or hated. Imagine a Roman crowd booing as some young Thracian lad gets his neck snapped by Dirk Vanderhuge, which only serves to get them excited for the next round where the righteous Biff Hardabs will wreck his shit.

Have the arena be a series of elevated platforms (ideally lethal fall height) barely wide enough for 2 persons to stand on it
5 of them, at varying heights, should do the trick for a duel
Alternatively, just a wide pillar (5 to 10m span) on the town square

Are you pretending ro be retarded ?
Because that is actually exactly how it went

I know, pleb. OP was asking how to make it more interesting than a hole filled with sand, so taking inspiration from the Romans is only natural in answering this question.

You are embarassing yourself

All of these at the same time.

/asp/ here

Make'em fight in a sharkcage

Keijo?

Make it a ring of stone with no floor hovering in the sky, spectated by angels. The courage of the combatants keeps them from falling. The moment the unworthy lose their nerve, they plummet.

Build the floor out of wind and the walls out of lightning

Maybe add some tree hazards for good measure

>This masterpiece is getting canceled because Japan has shit taste

Maze in the arena with a fort at one end. Could have defend the fort, or capture the flag brutal blood bath style, etc.

Victor from the blue team, leave the arena now and rest. YOU'VE earned it!

Sir, I feel that the photographer of that particular image had less than forthright intentions

Gladiators fight in your typical sand pit. Once a victor is found, the sandpit begins to draw in all the sand, like a sand watch.

The victor falls to the next circle, and so on.

Once a whole tier is finished, begin with the hole in the water section, followed by hole in the air and hole in the fire.

Eventually, the soldier becomes void of soul from all the fighting, making the final hole in himself.

Are there traps in Keijo! ?

A number of stone tablets with the ability to call forth monstrous creatures from another world
The combatants wager their strongest beast for their opponent to claim if they win, and on occasion their very souls

Fun fact. That happened.

Zero-G gladiator arena. Either via magic shenanigans or sci nonsense, whatever you can get away with.

Hole in the ground filled with quicksand that turns into radioactive permafrost when stepped on, then suddenly becomes greek fire when blood is added.

But where do you put the piranhas?

In the permafrost, which melts when it becomes greek fire
Yeah, that's right.
Piranhas that can swim in liquid fire.

Thunderdome

>How do we make a gladiatorial arena more interesting than a hole in the ground filled with sand?

Have the entire arena floor on a kind of revolving mechanism that will allow it to swap places with other floors: One of the floors allows the arena to be submerged, another is a small jungle/forested area cultivated by the arena workers.

Have monsters fight other monsters in it, like: wyverns, manticores, lions, chimeras, hippopotamuses, rhinos, interesting creatures, you know? Like, an entire pack of hyenas vs a stegosaurus or something.