Las Ventas in limbo
“Two years without toros in Las Ventas would be catastrophic for la Fiesta,” the co-empresario of the Madrid ring, Rafael García Garrido, has told Antonio Lorca in an interview for El País. But currently, the chances of that happening look high.
García, Director General of Nautalia, says it’s been impossible to hold bullfights in the plaza during the current coronavirus pandemic for both practical and economic reasons. “Las Ventas is seriously deficient in its arrangements for entrance and evacuation,” he says. “I’ll give you an example. We have 2,100 older aficionados who use two small lifts to get up to the gradas and andanadas. When would we have to start calling them in if only one person can use a lift at any one time?”
“In addition, half of the ticket sales are still done at the taquilla. How long do you think the queues would reach if social distancing is to be respected?”
Finances are a difficulty too, Garcia stating that it costs 85,000 euros, “simply to open the plaza gates. Any festejo put on with reduced capacity poses a problem. Bear in mind that, under the current pandemic regulations, only 10% of the plaza can be filled - some 2,400 spectators. With these numbers, there’s not even enough money to pay for the paseíllo.”
With no Covid-19 vaccine expected to come into general use until the Spring of 2021 at the earliest and improvement works to Las Ventas moving at a slow pace, even though the current access and egress arrangements are preventing the plaza from being used for anything other than bullfighting, the likelihood of a full temporada in the capital next year must be considered low, with the major feria of San Isidro again under threat. There were rumours this year that contractual conditions meant that the empresas of the major plazas were better off leaving their bullrings shut rather than opening them for a partial season, and presumably these factors are likely to come into play again.
García, who manages Las Ventas alongside Simon Casas, points to the rigidity of the mundillo also making life difficult for empresas. “In San Isidro, you could put together 17 or 18 sell-out carteles, but it’s not possible as the figuras will not be separated…. Often, you reach agreement with one of them, and when you think everything is sorted, the conditions come in - I won’t appear with this person; I don’t want to go in front of this other one; my dates are these… ah, and with these ganaderías and no others.” It is probably this last point that is the key one, and the main reason why today’s figuras will often end up appearing together on the same cartel.
“The problem,” says García, “is that Las Ventas isn’t sustainable on just toros alone; if you can’t organise other events, it’s a deficit business. The rent’s not a problem - it’s everything you cannot do that prevents you from making a profit.”
There are two years remaining on the current contract, and García says he is now simply hoping to break even by the end of it. As for the future - “I hope they’ll modernise the next tender. Madrid should continue having a plaza de temporada, but is there sufficient afición for 72 festejos a year? I think not. And why should one have to announce 23 novilladas when we know the youngsters appear without sufficient preparation? Wouldn’t it be more sensible to put on 50 novilladas in the towns of Madrid province and help the novilleros gain experience?”