It seems like it was yesterday, but Plaza 1, the company that manages Las Ventas, led by Rafael García Garrido and Simón Casas, begins its tenth season this year at the head of the Madrid plaza. And the two businessmen seem comfortable, installed in a comfort zone that, apparently, gives them more satisfaction than headaches. They dominate the situation, they rule, and, as if that were not enough, they maintain an excellent relationship with the owner of the building, the Community of Madrid, governed by the Popular Party.
Both parties drool talking about each other. The regional government has never corrected – at least, publicly – any decision of Plaza 1, and both the president of the Community and the councilor Carlos Novillo are full of praise for the Venteños businessmen. Logically, both García Garrido and Casas no longer find epithets to define the tireless support of the Government.
And it’s not just a matter of affection. Starting in 2022, on the occasion of the second stage of Plaza 1 in Las Ventas, the fee that business owners must pay annually to the Community went from 2,800,000 to 975,000 euros, a significant reduction. Not to be happy… Of course, no one explained then the reason for such a great favor, and whether or not there was any compensation in exchange. Based on this and other circumstances (the plaza cannot be used for non-bullfighting shows, but the spectacular tent installed in the arena is in high demand) it could be concluded that García Garrido and Casas make money.
This year’s San Isidro Fair is irrefutable proof that the management company has run out of imagination
But that’s fine, whichever party governs. It is good that the company makes profits and that there is a harmony between landlord and tenant that, in pure logic, should have a favorable impact on customers.
Of course, in this life nothing is perfect. Ten years are too many, just as commanding for so long in an all-embracing manner is a fertile ground for arrogance and arrogance; Getting used to no one joking at you is not the best breeding ground for getting management right.
And after such a long period of office we can see how some seams are unraveling.
Rafael García Garrido and Simón Casas are good businessmen because they knew how to reach the peak desired by any bullfighter and they have known how to make the bullring very profitable in times of serious uncertainty for the bullfighting festival.
But they are bad bullfighters.
For example, Plaza 1 is not a friend of transparency. For years he has presented the posters of the San Isidro Fair at a magnificent gala, but he does not submit to questions from the media about the intertwining of the inclusion of bulls and bullfighters. And the two businessmen are passionate about political correctness; that is, speaking without contributing anything. That is a bad habit, a direct consequence of arrogance.
They are bad bullfighters because they make posters like churros, and, from the bombshell Of the hype that decided the combinations of the 2018 Autumn Fair, they have not had a single innovative idea with the capacity to excite those who come to the box office.
This year’s San Isidro Fair is irrefutable proof that their imagination has run out. It is true that the current ranking is not the brightest in recent history; Morante’s withdrawal is traumatic; There are no exciting names on the paper. It must not be easy to combine bulls and bullfighters. Precisely for this reason, an additional effort must be required of them so that novel ideas, unexpected combinations, and surprises emerge, in short, that attract attention.
To benefit the figures with dates, companions and bulls, accept the commitments of the best recommended, cast out the lions to the less fortunate and leaving meritorious bullfighters in the gutter without any explanation (the absence of Ginés Marín is incomprehensible) it is not necessary to be a good businessman. Being good is something else.
Ah! Don’t let García Garrido and Casas believe that the place fills up or the season tickets increase due to their merits. It would be a big mistake. The best allies of current bullfighting are those who, with their erratic policies, pursue its disappearance. Hence the urgent need to make this temporary flowering permanent with new projects and exciting ideas.
He cannot be the image of the fair (Roca Rey) who has fled from the leadership of an orphaned cycle of a figure with arrests, with the exception of Borja Jiménez
And if one thing is clear, for example, it is that choosing Roca Rey as the image of the San Isidro Fair has not been a good decision. He is a young and attractive figure for today’s public, but he cannot show off his bare chest and a powerful look, like the cover of a fashion magazine, who has fled from the leadership of an orphaned cycle of a figurehead with arrests.
It is normal that Borja Jiménez, the only bullfighter who makes a real feat at the fair, felt upset when he saw the Peruvian bullfighter on the stage of the gala with a role that did not belong to him.
It is time for change, before the enemies of the party change their policies and that breath of rebellion that still fills the most important squares disappears. It is time to escape from the comfort zone, from bland posters, from amortized names, from a marathon fair overflowing with unusual boredom.
We must open the doors of Las Ventas to transparency; that the merits of each one and the reasons for the absence of the others be known. Plaza 1 is a private company but with enormous public impact, and it has the inexcusable duty to offer coherent explanations.
It is time for fewer smiles and hugs from the Community of Madrid and more demands. It is good that García Garrido and Simón Casas win, but that we all win. They, money, and the others, emotions.
Routine is a bad advisor; and arrogance is the prelude to failure. Whoever warns is not a traitor…