The empresas prepare for 2026

Sevilla’s La Maestranza - one of the plazas whose future management is to be decided

The empresas are gearing up for a winter of tender opportunities, with management of no less than five major bullrings to be decided over the coming months.

The most important of these is la Real Maestranza de Sevilla, which has been managed for the last 90 years by Pagés, currently represented by Ramón Valencia. Here, there is no public tender: instead, invitations for discussions with la Real Maestranza de Caballería, the bullring’s owners. There has been considerable debate in the taurine media of late as to whether the existing Pagés contract will be extended or whether Valencia will be offered a new contract, even though there has been litigation in recent years between the two parties (which Pagés lost). The latest rumours are that the maestrantes are not returning Valencia’s phone calls and that David de Miranda has delayed entering into a management arrangement with Pagés because of the uncertainty… Reckoned to be the most likely alternatives to Pagés are José María Garzón’s Lances de Futuro, which has managed Córdoba, Málaga and Santander (amongst other plazas) successfully in recent years, or the more recent partnership of Fermín Bohórquez, Litri, El Tato and Jorge Cutiño that has revived bullfighting at Marbella. The maestrantes are meeting on November 22 and an announcement is expected shortly after.

Málaga’s bullring of la Malagueta is currently out to tender, although the tender will need to be renewed and a decision on the new empresa delayed following a successful legal argument put by the Las Ventas empresa, Nautalia, that it had been unfairly barred from competing for the plaza due to the Diputación’s stipulation that tenderers had to have managed at least three bullrings of either 1st or 2nd class category in the last three years. The contest to manage the plaza was thought to have been between the existing empresa, Lances de Futuro, and the other empresas that met that requirement - la casa Matilla, Carlos Zúñiga, Alberto García’s Tauroemoción, Simón Casas, Lances de Futuro and the Baillères-Chopera partnership of BMF/FIT. However, with the requirement now removed, Nautalia and Pagés, even the Borhórquez team, may enter the fray as well. Local matador Javier Conde, who has connections with the Mallorca empresa Balears Cambio de Tercio, which earlier this year made an unsuccessful offer to purchase the bullrings of Palma de Mallorca and Jerez de la Frontera from the Balaña family, is also known to be interested in bidding, possibly in partnership with Simón Casas.

Paseíllo at Málaga

Another plaza de primera contract to be decided is that of la Misericordia de Zaragoza, most recently in the hands of Zúñiga y Toros, who have managed to recuperate the city’s Feria de San Jorge post-Covid, but who, faced with end-of-season absences of toreros and reduced options for toros bravos, have struggled to put on a worthwhile Feria del Pilar. In recent years, la Misericordia’s contract conditions have drawn criticism too, with several empresas refusing to take part in tenders. However, one of Zaragoza’s former empresas, Simón Casas, has already stated his intention to bid: “It’s one of Spain’s most important bullrings,” he’s said, “Working for the plaza and its spectators gave me great satisfaction as it involved reviving things after some dull seasons” - a task that needs doing again.

Albacete is a second class plaza, although its September feria is one of Spain’s largest. For the past few years, the ring has been run by a partnership formed by Simón Casas and the local ex-matador Manuel Amador. The latter has committed to organising the charitable Springtime Corrida de Asprona next year whatever the outcome of the tender, which is likely to attract a substantial number of potential empresas.

Alicante’s ayuntamiento will also be inviting tenderers for a new contract for its bullring this winter. For the last four years, Eventos Mare Nostrum, headed by Nacho Lloret, has been responsible for the plaza, which, this year, hosted a 9-day feria and had good attendance figures, with some 39 countries represented amongst the spectators. Lloret anticipates a lot of competition for the new tender: “When a venue functions well, it naturally arouses interest in the sector […] Honestly, I do not know of any better candidate than Mare Nostrum to lead the bullring in Alicante [...] Being from Alicante, we wanted the plaza to really matter, and I modestly believe we’ve achieved that, little by little. My wish is to continue leading this venue for many years, to grow and ensure that the city also grows and that this venue becomes a landmark in Alicante all year round.”

Guadalajara’s bullring, currently managed by Funtausa, part of la casa Matilla (which has recently reached agreement with the private owners of Almería’s plaza to put on its 2026 feria), will also be up for grabs this winter.

Finally, the ayuntamiento of Algeciras has just opened a tender for the management of its bullring over the next three years. The contract requires a minimum of three corridas in the annual Feria Real, although the organisation of additional festejos will be viewed positively. For thge last five years, the plaza has been managed by la Empresa Espectáculos Carmelo García. The council has reduced the tender pointing attributed to the offered contract fee (set at a minimum of 6,000 euros per annum) in favour of increased points for the proposed toreros and ganaderías.

ANOET re-organises

Meanwhile, La Asociación Nacional de Organizadores de Espectáculos Taurinos (ANOET) has restructured, with a smaller board comprising Rafael Garrido (Nautalia) as president; Ramón Valencia (Pagés) and Óscar Martínez Labiano (BMF/FIT) as vice-presidents; and Nacho Lloret, Alberto García, Carmelo García and José María Garzón (who returns to the ANOET fold after past disagreements with its operation) as vocales. In an accompanying press release, the association stated, “It has been decided to strengthen the executive power of the board of directors, but at the same time, greater member participation will be encouraged and efforts will be made to strengthen the association's internal cohesion.”

Commenting on the reasons behind these changes, Rafael Garrido has said, “Traditionally, the so-called entrepreneurial side of bullfighting has had a bad image and little visibility. The empresas were the villains of the story. Spanish society has long been aware of the need for business owners as guarantors of employment, production, etc. However, this social awareness has not reached the world of bullfighting. Why? I believe, in part, it is due to a somewhat outdated inertia from within, or “more of the same”. ANOET had to decide whether to change its inertia from within, with the unity of everyone and involving everyone, at the risk of disappearing if it did not.

“We need to start prioritizing between what’s important and what’s urgent. Urgent? A new convenio in the sector. Urgent is maintaining a correct vision based on bullfighting… there are many things. But we cannot set aside what’s important: ANOET must be sensitive to the demands of its clients, the public, and the afición, maintain natural and constant contacts with the livestock sector, with the bullfighter sector, as well as have the relationships that other business associations have with administrations and public authorities.

“Every impresario has their daily tasks in their plazas and in their management. We do not have a structure in which people are “freed” from those day-to-day tasks. We have to dedicate time to each and every problem that bullfighting has, which are not few in number, and we must do so by making time. I don’t say this for a medal. On the contrary, I say it because it’s our obligation. But we have to move forward steadily, step by step, making sure that every decision is made with consensus.”

Success but disunity in France

In France, the country’s National Assembly has thrown out by 75%-25% a proposal from the France Insoumise party (supported by the Greens) to reduce state subsidies to those towns that “favour the mistreatment of animals” by investing in bullfighting. As with the recent Congress of Deputies vote in Spain, the views of the country’s national political parties towards bullfighting have now effectively been defined and the result reinforces the importance of the Union des Villes Taurines France, which is a key element in the relationship between bullfighting and political groups in France.

The bullring at Nîmes

Unfortunately, however, there is disunity in the Union at present because the town council of Nîmes is not contributing to the Union’s funds towards actions in defence of bullfighting. Julien Dubois, the Union’s president, has explained, “Nîmes did not include in its contract terms the obligation for its delegated empresa — Simon Casas and Co — to pay the corresponding fees. It’s unacceptable that the largest bullring in France does nothing to defend bullfighting and leaves all the burden of the work on others, while taking advantage of the results achieved.”

The Union has announced its intention to expel Nîmes from its membership, although the decision is not due to be taken until after France’s municipal elections next March, the hope being that a new town council team in Nîmes will identify a means of resolving the issue.