Málaga breaks the mould
Paseíllo in La Malagueta
Málaga’s Diputación has broken the mould in approving its proposed new contract for management of the city’s bullring.
In recent years, the empresario has had to pay an annual rent and 6% of box-office takings to the authority. However, the successful tenderer for the new contract will have no rent to pay, nor will any ticket monies reach the Diputación: instead, the empresario will be expected to invest monies in the bullring and local taurine activities.
The previous arrangement was typical of bullring contracts where the plaza de toros is owned by a local authority and its management tendered out to a private empresa. This new approach, however, takes account of the uncertainties of Covid-19 and presumably acknowledges the economic benefits to the city as a whole from having a bullfight feria and attractive carteles that bring in the crowds.
Málaga’s new empresario will be expected to hold at least nine festejos a year - eight in the August feria (including a novillada and a rejoneo event) and a further corrida to mark Easter. They will also be required to provide the province’s escuela taurina with 40 vacas and 20 erales for practical classes each year, promote local alumnos and organise an international competition for taurine schools close to the August feria. A minimum 20% discount will be offered to abonados and reduced ticket prices will also be available in 300 andanada seats for people under 28 years old, the retired and the unemployed. The proposed ticket prices and the final discounts available will form part of the competitive tender process.
The empresa will be obliged to follow local regulations in respect of Covid-19 or similar public health emergencies and to employ health care assistance.
The Diputación will remain responsible for the plaza’s taurine museum and restaurant as well as the general upkeep of the building (except on the days on which festejos take place).
Meanwhile, Ramón Valencia and Simon Casas have apparently told la Junta de Andalucía that they are willing to operate Sevilla’s April Fair and Valencia’s Las Fallas in 2021 at 50% capacity of their respective bullrings, only to be told who knows what the local Covid-19 regulations will be next Spring? Surely, they and other empresas of bullrings in big cities holding substantial ferias would be better served by renegotiating their contracts with the ring owners along the lines of Málaga’s….
December postscript
La Fundación de Toro de Lidia, ANOET, the UCTL, la Unión Nacional de Picadores y Banderilleros and la Unión de Toreros clearly don’t agree with the above analysis as they have jointly sent a letter to la Diputación de Málaga asking for the council’s tender to be withdrawn.
They say that they imagine the tender was drawn up “with an ambitious spirit,” but go on to say it doesn’t sufficiently take into account existing circumstances, pointing to the financial losses sustained in management of the bullring over the past decade as well as the pandemic’s devastating impact on the taurine sector. “We consider proceeding with the tender as it’s presently written will have a negative effect, not just directly on the business of running the bullring, but indirectly on all the rest of the sector, with consequences for the aficionado.”
“The sector needs the support of administrations more than ever,” the letter concludes. But the five organisations do not indicate what this support would look like. If they can come together to write letters like this, perhaps it is high time that they jointly publish their views as to how a financially viable taurine operation (from escuelas taurinas and novilladas sin picadores to corridas de toros) should operate.
On the day tenders closed, no one had bid for the contract, leaving la Diputación de Málaga to think again.