BULLFIGHTING:Spain's most notorious sport is going through hard times because of rising costs and growing disillusionment. Graham Keelyreports.

THE FESTIVAL of San Isidro, the biggest date in the bullfighting calendar, is in full swing. Away from the drama played out between matador and bull, another is going on behind the scenes: Spain's most notorious "sport" is going through hard times.

Rising costs of foodstuffs and stiffer competition among bull breeders have meant making a profit is now harder.

According to figures from the Spanish industry ministry, only half of the country's 1,268 bull breeders managed to make a profit last year.

Of the 351 members of the Union of Bullfighting Breeders, the second biggest industry body in Spain, only 50 escaped going into the red last year.

"The bull is an expensive product," said Eduardo Miura, president of the union.

"Also this is a sector that is always in crisis."

He said of the 700 bulls that he breeds, only 70 may be of sufficient quality for bullfighting.

Miura said a number of new breeders who were not interested in making a profit but simply had a personal interest in the business were making the competition harder.

The costs of breeding a bull have also risen sharply in recent years. They vary from €18,000 to about €100,000 for the kind of animal that will appear in Las Ventas, the famous Madrid bullring that plays host to the San Isidro festival.

Many breeders depend on European Union subsidies of €220 a cow a year plus indirect Spanish government aid for farming.

As a whole, the industry records an average annual turnover of about €2.5 billion. It employs 200,000 people, from matadors to farm hands.

Another rising cost for the industry has been bigger wage demands by the star matadors. Jose Tomas recently negotiated a deal worth €450,000 a bullfight during San Isidro - a figure that caused outrage among aficionados as part of it was paid by Madrid city council.

Wages for matadors, who are paid for each bullfight, are from €36,000 upwards.

The entrepreneur, who has to pay everyone from the bull breeder to the matador to stage a bullfight, is seeing profit margins cut by rising wage demands and falling attendances.

Pulling in the crowds with star matadors still proves relatively easy, but away from the big-name bullrings such as Las Ventas and Real Maestranza de Caballeria in Seville, smaller rings struggle to make a profit.

Though bullfights are still popular among tourists, recent polls suggest there is growing disillusionment among Spaniards with the controversial fiesta nacional.

A Gallup poll carried out in 2006 found that 72 per cent of Spaniards had no interest at all in watching bullfights.

In 1987, a similar poll found that only 46 per cent were not interested in la corrida.

Guardian Service