The Real Maestranza of Seville is a corporation founded in 1670 by King Charles II and ratified in 1730 by the first Bourbon monarch, Philip V, who granted it the privilege of celebrating bullfights to finance its activities. It was born for equestrian art and preparation for war, but the passage of time has converted that objective into a meritorious charitable, social and cultural work. As a consequence of this royal license, the Pagés company is the owner of the Seville bullring.
It is an entity born at the end of 1932, by the Catalan businessman Eduardo Pagés, who on that date signed an agreement with the teachers to manage the square. He died in 1945 and, after some judicial vicissitudes, his daughter, Carmen Pagés, regained management for herself and handed it over to her husband, Diodoro Canorea, who served as businessman of the Sevillian bullring until his death in January 2000.
He was succeeded by his son, Eduardo Canorea, and his son-in-law, Ramón Valencia. The first left the company in 2015, and the second remains to this day as manager of the company created by his wife’s grandfather a whopping 93 years ago.
That is how long the Real Maestranza and the Pagés company have been living under the same roof, a de facto couple that has cleverly solved the problems derived from the wear and tear of coexistence, which have existed throughout their history, and has maintained a stable, comfortable and beneficial relationship for both.
La Real Maestranza is not a cheap landlord. The fee that Pagés pays for the management of the bullring is, without a doubt, the most expensive in the bullfighting business.
Until now it has been a reciprocal and exemplary provision of services, in which Pagés has enjoyed the enormous prestige of successfully managing one of the truly emblematic bullfighting rings, and the Real Maestranza has had income that has allowed and allows it to act as a committed, respected and admired NGO.
But in the 93 years of the relationship there has been one detail that has threatened at different stages to break the good harmony between the parties: the money, the damn money.
La Real Maestranza is not a cheap landlord. No. The fee that Pagés must pay for renting the arena is, without a doubt, the most expensive in the bullfighting business. Since 2002, the date on which the last update of the contract was signed, the maestrontes receive 21.88% of the gross income from bullfighting festivities and 50 percent of the profits from other shows.
As the total absence of transparency is an essential characteristic of both parties, it is impossible to know the total amount of the fee, but it does not seem unreasonable to suggest that it could reach five million euros per year. If this figure is compared with the 975,000 euros of the fee that the Plaza 1 company pays each year to the Community of Madrid for the rental of Las Ventas, the mastering requirement is confirmed. And it can also be understood that the price of passes and tickets in Seville is much higher than in Madrid. Of course, while the Real Maestranza dedicates that money to enormous social and cultural work, the Madrid Government pockets it for political actions.
Oh, the money…! Money has broken up this veteran Sevillian common-law couple. Before the pandemic, Ramón Valencia filed two lawsuits in court in which he requested the Real Maestranza to refund 6 million euros for the VAT paid since 2002 and compensation for tourist visits to the museum and the plaza area.
Both lawsuits have been lost by the Pagés company, and they have left a very bitter taste in the mouth of the master entity.
The matter is complicated because on December 31, 2025, the current contract expires, and the property must decide whether to continue the relationship with Pagés and maintain – or tighten even more – the contractual conditions or, on the contrary, prefer another tenant.
The solution is not easy.
Ramón Valencia has seriously bothered the Real Maestranza with his lawsuits, but he is backed by an impeccable family and personal career for the property (a different matter is the less impeccable treatment that the Pagés company has maintained and maintains with its clients). What’s more, the bullfighting authority that the Sevillian businessman can boast of is exclusively due to the fact that he occupies the bullring’s management office. That is to say, outside of La Maestranza, Valencia is only the representative of a young Javier Zulueta.
And the teachers? They are conservative, very conservative, and will always opt for the security that their common-law partner offers over a new companion with dreams on the table.
Another problem is that there are no strong candidates who can compete with Ramón Valencia; Today, there is no other businessman on the horizon with technical and economic capacity that offers confidence to the owners.
Ramón Valencia has seriously bothered the Real Maestranza with his lawsuits, but he has an impeccable family history for the owners of the plaza.
So?
Two things are true. The first is that the Real Maestranza has drawn up a new lease contract for the square, the economic and temporal content of which is unknown; and the second is that tomorrow, Saturday, the 22nd, the General Board of ladies and gentlemen teachers meets, as they do every year around this time.
Regarding the first, it is not unreasonable to venture that the new contract will be more leonine than the previous one so that the money makes the judicial slights forgotten. The pain with bread is less, you know. And it is not at all clear that it is the annual meeting that has decision-making capacity; In any case, it will ratify a previously adopted measure.
And what will the Pagés company do in that case? Well, if they don’t put a rope around his neck, he will reluctantly accept, but he will accept. Because? Because Ramón Valencia, without the Maestranza, is nobody in the world of bullfighting. What if they raise the fee even more, as is foreseeable? Well, the price of tickets and drinks is raised, and the matter is resolved.
What if Real Maestranza had decided to abandon Ramón Valencia and sign the new contract with another company?
Anything could be, but it doesn’t seem likely.
Be that as it may, the days go by, and both Ramón Valencia and a new tenant of the plaza need time to organize the very important posters for the Sevillian season ticket. The validity of the current contract ends on December 31, so it is easy to assume that the final decision is coming.
It is true, however, that the couple between the very noble, monarchical and supportive Real Maestranza de Caballería of Seville and the Pagés company, with a respectable history, forged over 93 years of joint work, is broken, but it is no less true that both are condemned to live under the same roof. That’s how it will be if an unexpected last-minute surprise doesn’t throw everything up in the air.