Currently there's really no good place to discuss Pankration, Chocobo Raising/Racing, et cetera, in the Final Fantasy XI forums.
For Pankration, especially, there's going to be a LOT of possible combinations, and temperments, and ways to get traits -- ideas that cannot be easily discussed in the General forum. In the general forum, for example, so many threads get created that the Chocobo and Pankration related posts get quickly buried.
I would like to suggest a dedicated forum(s) for the activities in FFXI other than End Game (which has its own forum), Crafting/HELM (tradeskill), and leveling (Job forums). While Chocobo raising/racing may or may not rate its own forum, the complexity of Pankration I think definately warrants it. When the Colleseum is released, that will probably be a whole separate activity as well. Even if a dedicated forum is not deemed necessary for each of those activities, a consolidated "extracurricular activities" forum can be set up for all of the above. Maybe even ballista could be included?
Sorry if this has already been suggested, I looked through the first several pages and couldn't find anything similar.