QCOSTARICA – The Municipality of San José announced Thursday the cancellation of the traditional bullfights of Zapote this year because there were no bidders for the television broadcast, whose deadline in the bidding process closed on December 2.
“There were no bidders interested in bidding for those rights, which leaves no alternative to the city council than to cancel the bullfighting events, given that it is impossible, due to time constraints, to start a new bidding process again,” said the institution through a statement.
Both major television stations, Televisora de Costa Rica (Teletica channel 7) and Repretel (channel 6) abstained from bidding for the television rights to the Zapote event that traditionally kicks off Christmas day and runs into the first week of the new year.
In a press release, Repretel and Teletica announced this Thursday that they will not participate in the open bidding process of the Municipality of San José to acquire the broadcasting rights of the Zapote bullfights, but would maintain interest in broadcasting bullfights from other cities, because it is “an activity that represents a cultural and popular tradition for a large sector of the population.
“Given the disputes and controversy between various actors and said entity (Municipality of San José), both television stations decided not to participate on this occasion,” the communications media stated.
The television stations added that they have received expressions of interest from some communities, which have been “strongly affected” by the pandemic, and have the infrastructure to carry out the runs.
At the Muni (Municipality), they indicated that it is not feasible to carry out the bullfights without the revenue from the television broadcasts, in addition to operating the event at 30% capacity.
This will be the second year in a row that the Zapote bullfights will not take place, last year’s cancellation was due to the covid-19 pandemic.