Capitol Arena

Capitol Arena
Location	The Capitol
Appearances	The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The Capitol Arena was a dilapidated amphitheater in the Capitol that was later appropriated as the first Hunger Games arena. The 1st through 10th Hunger Games were held there.

History

The arena was once a "state-of-the-art" amphitheater used for various sporting, entertainment, and military events. It had been built across the river to prevent crowds from swamping the downtown. Its richest guests came through an entrance marked with velvet rope, and they viewed the festivities from private boxes, some of which even sported retractable roofs, air-conditioning, and Avox servants. Those who were not as rich had to enter via turnstiles using Capitol tokens.

Interior of the Capitol Arena.

During the First Rebellion, high-profile executions were staged there, making it a prime target for rebel bombers. Once it became the first Hunger Games arena, tributes were locked in with nothing but weapons while the audience watched from the comfort of their own homes. At the conclusion of each competition, the bodies would be removed and the doors locked until the next year with no further fanfare.

10th Hunger Games

Bombing of the Capitol Arena

Main article: Bombing of the Capitol Arena

On Saturday, July 9th, the Capitol Arena suffered a major bombing prior to the Games. Most people in attendance were injured, and Otto, Ginnee, and Apollo and Diana Ring died in the bombing itself. Facet, Velvereen, and Sabyn died staging an escape attempt amid the chaos, and Panlo and Sheaf succumbed to their injuries before Gaius Breen met the same fate.

The interior of the Capitol Arena after the bombing

The Games

After the bombing, the Gamemakers pressed on with plans to hold the Games there. Betting, sponsorship, and sponsor gifts were introduced for the first time this year, which would provide tributes with food and water to keep them going for longer.

Terrain

The arena itself was shaped like an oval. Bombings during the First Rebellion left the ground littered with craters and rubble, and the once-lush grass had died from lack of maintenance. There was a high wall separating the field from the stands; however, wartime bombings created handholds that allowed tributes to climb up into the bleachers and concession stands.

The bombing shortly before the 10th Hunger Games created new debris and blew open several gates. This allowed tributes to access tunnels in the arena's walls where they could hide from their competitors. In the film adaptation, the tunnels were underneath the arena, and the bombing blew open a hole in the ground.

The Capitol Arena was not particularly secure; it was left unguarded in between the annual Games, and even when the 10th Hunger Games were underway, Sejanus Plinth was able to infiltrate the arena on the first night.

Layout

The lobby was outside the tributes' regular area of play. It held boarded-up booths, turnstiles, and hallways with openings to the arena's different levels of seating. Past the turnstiles was the main gate, which a large scoreboard hung over. The main gate had been blown open by the bombing, completely removing one of its doors, so a barricade was erected with "multiple layers of concrete slabs, wooden planks, and barbed wire". However, this barricade was more for show than security. Its main purpose was to block the audience's view of the lobby and the street outside, so tributes could easily get around it. The first actual fortification was set up at the turnstiles: a temporary set of bars encased in barbed wire.

For the 10th Hunger Games, a pair of 20-foot steel poles were set up on the field near the entrance, joined by a wooden crossbeam of about the same length. However, the beam was no more than six inches wide. Many tributes' deaths took place on or around this structure.

Muttations

On the fourth day, Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul unleashed a tank of snake mutts as retaliation for Gaius Breen's death. They were brightly colored, and they heavily relied on their sense of smell because their hearing and sight were horrible. If they smelled an unfamiliar scent, they attacked it, and they killed two tributes. Coriolanus Snow had exposed them to Lucy Gray Baird's scent, so she was able to make a show of charming them. Once a storm rolled around, most of the snakes died because they drowned or could not regulate their temperature, but Lucy Gray was able to keep one alive in her pocket to set upon Treech.

Food and water sources

There was no access to food and water in the arena itself, leaving tributes to die of dehydration, starve, or get killed by better-fed competitors during the 1st-9th Hunger Games. The introduction of sponsors in the 10th Hunger Games allowed audiences to pay to provide for their favorite tributes.

Trivia

• For the film adaptation, the exterior of the arena was made by digitally combining the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany with Centennial Hall in Wrocław, Poland, where interior scenes were filmed. The Olympiastadion was built by the Nazis for the 1936 Summer Olympics, which was similar to the Hunger Games in terms of its purpose as a propaganda event.
• It is unknown whether the Capitol Arena was used again after the first ten Hunger Games. However, considering its ruined condition and the resounding failure of the 10th Hunger Games, it's probable that the 11th was the first to use a new arena.
  • Assuming it wasn't already demolished, the Capitol Arena would have been destroyed alongside all other arenas and replaced with a memorial following the Second Rebellion.