At last - a tender that puts tauromaquia first
La Comunidad de Madrid has finally published its tender for management of the Las Ventas bullring - and it’s good to see the document places the interests of tauromaquia over and above income for the authority, showing that the Comunidad takes seriously its obligation as a public body to promote and defend la Fiesta.
The minimum income from the contract has been set at 675,000 euros per annum, but a maximum figure has also been set, with no bidder able to propose more than 975,000 euros per year. This compares with the 2,800,000 euros that Nautalia and Simon Casas offered to pay per temporada in the current contract - a figure that’s been affected both by Covid and restrictions on the building’s ability to host events other than bullfights. La Comunidad, of course, recently decided that Las Ventas’s role should be restricted to bullfights and other small events that only make use of the arena.
Even more importantly, bids will be assessed against a number of criteria which, together, amount to a maximum total of 100 points, and the income element only accounts for 15 of these.
The two highest-scoring elements of the tender (amassing a potential total of 25 points each) are for the strategic planning of the temporada and for the mundillo’s longstanding weak point of promotion and publicity. On the latter, a minimum of 600,000 euros will be expected to be committed by the new empresa. The temporada must comprise 64 festejos per annum, of which two should be based around recortadores, with another two espectáculos cómicos. The tender text places an emphasis on the quality of the festejos, saying that the principal figuras should appear “frequently” and that “diestros of interest to the afición” should also be contracted to appear. During San Isidro, two of the events must feature either an alternativa or a confirmación de alternativa, and three similar events must be held during the remainder of the temporada. Indeed, there appears to be a desire for consistency across the season, with the plans for San Isidro accounting for 8 points, the Otoño feria 5 points and the ‘temporada ordinaria’ 7 points. Over the course of each season, at least 14 novilladas con picadores must be held. The empresa will be expected to display at least 50% of the bulls bought for festejos in the corrales of El Batán.
Other responsibilities of the new empresa will be to promote tauromaquia through links with rural Madrid and its ganaderías bravas (10 points); funding la escuela José Cubero Yiyo (7 points) and other escuelas in the region (3 points); providing discounts for abonados, the retired, the disabled and the under-25s (10 points); and improving the plaza infirmary and access to it (5 points). Entrance to apartados (currently costing a euro) will in future be free.
To be eligible to bid for running the plaza, empresarios must have managed a 1st or 2nd class plaza between 2018 and 2020 and achieved a turnover of 5 million euros on this activity. It is reckoned that Nautalia, Simon Casas, Ramón Valencia and the FIT business of the Baillères and Chopera families would meet these criteria individually, whilst a combined approach by other empresas would allow for bids from the likes of Matilla, Zúñiga father and son and los Lozano.
The contract will run for four years, beginning on June 6 once San Isidro has finished, with an option to extend it for a further two years. Bids must be submitted to la Comunidad by March 15.