Chapter 215: The Development of Bullfighting Competitions

In fact, starting from March 1877, bullfighting events hosted by the royal family and held simultaneously across all regions of Spain had already begun.

While called an event, it was actually a nationwide competition for Spanish bullfighters. This competition would select the most outstanding bullfighters in Spain, who would then be personally awarded the title of Royal Spanish Bullfighter by Gao Da.

Because the selection was taking place across all regions of Spain, the first four months of the bullfighting competition were held in the major regions, with the goal of conducting a first round of screening in each to select the more talented bullfighters to head to Ma Deli for the second round of the final tournament.

It is currently April, the season when Spanish bullfighting is at its most heated.

In Gao Da's plan, bullfighting is a nationwide activity related to the combat effectiveness of the Spanish military; it can both provide the Spanish public with an entertainment activity to vent their emotions and cultivate a combative and fearless spirit within the Spanish nation.

This year is the first year the national bullfighting competition has been held, and Gao Da is paying relatively close attention to it.

In mid-April 1877, Gao Da, accompanied by a group of Spanish officials, watched the Ma Deli regional bullfighting competition with great fanfare and praised the bullfighters who performed exceptionally well.

According to the rules of the bullfighting competition, the four-month period from March to July each year is for the major regions to conduct preliminary screenings and determine the final ten people who will go to Ma Deli to participate in the second round of the competition.

The main reason for this regulation is to make the bullfighting competition nationwide. If the competition were only held around Ma Deli, it would be difficult for the influence of the bullfighting competition to radiate to the whole of Spain.

Although Ma Deli is the largest city in Spain, its geographical location, apart from the advantage of being in the very center of Spain, is not as excellent as that of Barcelona in other respects.

Barcelona is a port city in Spain, and its surroundings are mostly plains and hills, so urban development is almost unaffected.

Ma Deli, however, is surrounded by mountains on all sides, which not only affects the development of the city but also means there are no large cities within dozens of kilometers of it.

To the west of Ma Deli is the massive Central Mountain Range, to the east is the Kunka Mountain, to the north is the endless Meseta Plateau, and to the south, there is the Toledu Mountain acting as a barrier.

It is precisely this area between these mountain ranges that gave birth to Ma Deli, the largest city in Spain. But it is also because Ma Deli is located between many mountain ranges that its development has been restricted.

The abundance of mountain ranges and plateaus is also the reason why Spain lags behind other European powers in national development.

Although Spain has an extremely vast territory, the massive Meseta Plateau sits in the north-central region of Spain, turning large swaths of Spanish land into mountainous areas and deserts unsuitable for development.

Spain is also the only country among many European nations to possess a desert; the Tabernas Desert is located between the Mount Moleina and the Penibetico Mountains. The two mountain ranges to the north and south block the humid climate from the ocean, and coupled with the arid and rainless conditions, a desert zone was formed here.

The Tabernas Desert is a relatively unique natural landscape in Spain and even the whole of Europe. Because its geographical environment is relatively similar to the southwestern United States, it has attracted many Hollywood film crews to shoot on location in later generations.

The famous films "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" were both filmed in Spain, and even more than 40% of films depicting the American West have been shot in the Tabernas Desert.

From this, it can be seen that possessing this desert is not necessarily a bad thing for Spain. The area of the Tabernas Desert is only 280 square kilometers, the size of just a few towns; instead, it can make Spain's geographical environment richer and incidentally attract tourists from Europe.

Gao Da still significantly underestimated the appeal of bullfighting in Spain. This national bullfighting competition hosted by Gao Da can be said to have attracted the attention of most Spaniards.

The Ma Deli region naturally also had to select the top ten most outstanding bullfighters before the second round of the competition. Whether it was the bullfighting competition held at the Laerta Plaza or at other bullrings, it could attract the attention and arrival of a large number of Spaniards.

This also made almost every bullfighting match packed to capacity, and it also drove the commercial development around the bullrings.

Take the largest bullring in Spain, Laerta Plaza, as an example. Laerta Plaza can accommodate more than 3, 00 spectators at most, and in recent times, bullfighting matches have been held almost every day.

The ticket revenue from the daily bullfighting matches alone has already brought huge profits to Laerta Plaza.

A portion of this will be converted into tax revenue, allowing the Ma Deli municipal government to obtain more income.

Not to mention that the food, drinks, and other consumption purchased by these tourists around the plaza can all drive economic development.

Although most tourists do not spend much money, the role of currency circulation in the economy is not just the superficial monetary value.

More importantly, such economic circulation is happening every day. Just because of the holding of this bullfighting event, the speed of Spain's economic development can far exceed the same period last year.

This is still under the premise that Spain does not have large-scale bullrings. Once Spain's large-scale bullrings are completed, a bullfighting event will have nearly ten thousand spectators watching.

The economic boost from these nearly ten thousand spectators will be several times higher than it is now. With the holding of the bullfighting competition every year, Ma Deli's economic development will also board a fast track and achieve a takeoff in a short period.

After watching two bullfighting matches, Gao Da did not go to Laerta Plaza to watch again.

It was not that Gao Da was not interested in the bullfighting competition, but that every time Gao Da arrived, it would affect the schedule of ordinary spectators watching the bullfighting competition.

To ensure Gao Da's safety, when Gao Da watches a bullfighting match, the guards will impose martial law on Laerta Plaza, allowing only a small number of spectators who have undergone body searches and inspections to enter.

Once or twice, the public might not have any dissatisfaction, but if it happens too many times, the public will definitely have other thoughts.

This has to be blamed on the fact that when Laerta Plaza was designed, it did not take into account that members of the royal family would come to watch in person.

Theoretically, when such large-scale bullrings are built, several places similar to boxes are specially constructed and separated from the ordinary spectator seats.

This not only ensures privacy and safety within the box but also does not affect ordinary spectators watching the bullfighting competition.

The existence of these box-like areas is prepared for more distinguished guests. Ordinary spectators can, of course, purchase box tickets, but the price is generally more expensive, and it requires certain qualifications; not everyone can purchase them.

Regarding this point, Gao Da had already considered it.

The large-scale bullring built by the royal family in the suburbs of Ma Deli will accommodate nearly ten thousand spectators, including ten boxes of various sizes.

The largest of these boxes can accommodate more than 20 spectators, and the smallest can accommodate more than 5 spectators, and they have their own exclusive passages, so there is no need to walk through the passages for ordinary spectators.

This is also a place specially designed by Gao Da for himself, his family, and the nobles to watch bullfighting matches. Capitalists can, of course, buy tickets to enter the boxes to watch, but the ticket price will be more expensive, which is also where the bullring earns income.

Because this large-scale bullring was funded by the royal family, the ownership will, of course, belong to the royal family.

Gao Da certainly cannot earn too much profit from the public, so the place to make money can only be placed in the direction of boxes and some services that come with the bullring.

After all, it is a large-scale bullring that can accommodate nearly ten thousand people; the interior of the bullring also has places to sell food and drinks, as well as large toilets distributed in different parts of the bullring.

Although Gao Da did not think that the bullring could quickly recoup its costs after it was built, if he could make money from capitalists and nobles, Gao Da would certainly not mind.

Gao Da had not appeared again after watching two bullfighting matches, but this could not hinder the enthusiasm of Spaniards to watch bullfighting matches.

As the national bullfighting competition had been held for several months, bullfighting had already formed an unstoppable heat in Spain, and the outstanding bullfighters in the major regions had also become hot stars in their respective regions, sparking cheers and pursuit from the public.

It is worth mentioning that as Gao Da held the national bullfighting competition, bullfighting also formed a heat wave among the noble class.

Most nobles were only keen on watching bullfighting matches, but a small number of nobles chose to join directly and become brave and fearless bullfighters.

Although bullfighting activities are full of dangers, one might lose their life under the horns of a wild bull if not careful.

This not only failed to stop the hearts of Spaniards who love bullfighting activities but instead made more people feel curious and concerned about this national competition.

According to the royal family's statistics on the bullfighting competitions in the major regions, in the first two months of the official holding of bullfighting activities, the total number of bullfighting competition tickets sold in the major regions exceeded 1. million.

Although this is only the number of tickets sold and does not mean that 1. million people actually watched the bullfighting matches, it can prove one thing: the attention of Spaniards to the bullfighting competition has reached an extremely high level.

According to the size of the bullrings in the major regions, except for the relatively large bullrings in the Andalusia and Ma Deli regions, the other regions only have medium-sized bullrings with one or two thousand spectator seats.

Coupled with the fact that there are not necessarily bullfighting matches every day, being able to sell more than 1. million tickets in less than two months is already an quite exaggerated figure.

According to the different seats, the ticket prices for the bullfighting competition are also different.

Taking the ticket sales of Ma Deli's Laerta Plaza as an example, the tickets in the farthest end are the cheapest, and the average ticket price does not exceed 10 cents, which is 0. Peseta.

And the tickets in the best viewing area are several times the price of these farthest-end seat tickets, with the most expensive ones even reaching a high price of 1. 5 Pesetas.

Although the current per capita income in Spain has increased to over 131 Pesetas, a 1. 5 Peseta ticket is still the income of three days of work for an ordinary person, and the vast majority of commoners will not waste so much money on a bullfighting match.

Most of those who actually buy these tickets for better viewing positions are the middle class, or even capitalists and nobles.

In fact, the selling price of 1. 5 Pesetas is not expensive in itself; for the ordinary middle class, there is no need to feel distressed, let alone for capitalists and nobles with larger assets.

The price of bullfighting competition tickets is constantly changing. There are many factors that affect ticket prices, the most important of which is the fame of the bullfighters participating in the bullfighting competition and the ferocity of the bulls prepared by the bullring.

The fiercer the bull, the more exciting the bullfighting match will be. Famous bullfighters can also attract more spectators to watch the competition; after all, these bullfighters have only one way to attract attention, and that is to use more exciting bullfighting matches to arouse the pursuit and attention of the audience.

Both of these points are factors that determine the excitement of the bullfighting competition, and this is also the reason why they can affect the ticket prices of the bullfighting competition.

Although this competition was hosted by Gao Da, it was actually in cooperation with the bullrings in the major regions of Spain. The bullring owned by Gao Da had not been built yet, and even if it were built, it would only host the second round of the final tournament in the large-scale bullring.

Cooperating with these existing bullrings in the major regions is also for the purpose of quickly holding the bullfighting competition and helping the bullfighting activity to develop better in the major regions of Spain.

If it relied solely on the royal family to promote it, firstly, it would require more time and more capital investment, and secondly, without the participation of other capital, it would not be so easy to develop rapidly.

Although doing so would yield a portion of the profits to the bullrings in the major regions, for Gao Da, there is actually no loss.

A portion of the money earned by these bullrings will also be turned into tax revenue and handed over to the government, increasing the government's income.

The money they earn themselves will also be used for the promotion of the bullfighting competition and the expansion of the bullring, etc., helping the bullfighting competition to carry out a new round of promotion in Spain.

Coupled with the public opinion power of the newspaper offices owned by Gao Da, this is also the reason why the bullfighting activity was quickly welcomed by most Spaniards and achieved great success.

Since the bullfighting competition has achieved initial success, the next thing to do is very simple: promote the ongoing bullfighting competition with greater intensity, and at the same time, expand the bullrings in the major regions as much as possible to ensure that more spectators can be accommodated.

The more spectators watching the bullfighting competition, the more income it will bring to the bullring and the royal family.

At present, the scale of bullrings in the major regions is about 1, 00 to 2, 00 people; such a scale is really too small to cope with the public's enthusiasm for watching bullfighting matches.

Even in Ma Deli, where the bullring scale reaches 3, 00 people, there will still be a situation where the public cannot buy tickets.

Besides the low ticket prices for the bullfighting competition, another reason is that the bullrings in the major regions really cannot accommodate more spectators, leading to most Spaniards only being able to watch the corresponding bullfighting competition information on the news and unable to witness it with their own eyes.

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(End of chapter)