Benidorm is about to spend €15 million fixing up its old bullring
The city has secured funding for part of the work, but will still have to find almost €9 million in the local coffers for the project
Benidorm is preparing to spend €15 million transforming its old bullring into a modern cultural and community hub, in a move that says as much about the town’s future as it does about its past.
Next week, the city council will bring forward a proposal to launch the tender process for the ambitious ‘Benidorm Open Arena’ project, a plan to turn the ageing venue into a multifunctional space for concerts, youth activities, sport and social events.
The project has already secured €6.4 million in European Regional Development Fund backing through the EDIL programme, but that still leaves the council needing to find almost €9 million from its own budget.
For a city often caricatured as little more than sunburnt tourists, mobility scooters and stag dos in matching T-shirts, it is a surprisingly serious investment in civic infrastructure.
Mayor Toni Pérez has described the project as “ambitious”, saying it will create new spaces for “culture, knowledge, entertainment and community life” while also improving links between the Els Tolls and Foietes-Colonia Madrid neighbourhoods.
And in fairness, he may have a point.
The Benidorm bullring is not exactly a bustling cathedral of traditional bullfighting these days. There is no regular bullfighting season, and the venue is already used more often for concerts and multicultural events than for matadors and capes.
So rather than preserving a fading symbol for the sake of nostalgia, the council is effectively acknowledging what many places across Spain are quietly coming to terms with: old civic spaces need to evolve if they are to survive.
What exactly is planned for the Benidorm bullring?
The heart of the plan is ‘Arena Live’, which will see the bullring itself renovated and turned into a large flexible venue for cultural, sporting and social uses.
Alongside that is ‘Arena Joven’, a new youth centre designed as an accessible and inclusive space for training, leisure and participation.
Then there is ‘Arena Encuentro’, aimed at improving the urban environment around the site and making it easier to move between outlying neighbourhoods and the town centre via l’Aigüera.
In other words, this is not just a facelift. It is an attempt to stitch together parts of the town that have long felt disconnected, while giving younger residents something more meaningful than yet another place to queue for a cocktail in a plastic yard glass.
Of course, spending nearly €9 million of local money on a bullring revamp is bound to raise eyebrows, especially at a time when councils everywhere are under pressure over housing, services and rising costs.
But the city argues that the joint design-and-build tender makes financial sense precisely because the structure is in such poor condition.
Bringing the past into the future
The project’s technical complexity is one of the main reasons the council wants the construction company involved from the outset. With old buildings like this, problems such as corrosion, hidden cracks or deeper structural weaknesses often only become clear once work begins.
Bringing builders in at the design stage, the council says, should help avoid nasty surprises later and reduce the risk of spiralling costs. Whether sceptics are reassured by that remains to be seen.
Still, there is something telling about the symbolism here. A bullring, once a monument to an older Spain, may soon become a place for young people, concerts, public events and better neighbourhood connections.
For a town built on reinvention, perhaps that is exactly the point. Benidorm has always understood that survival depends on knowing when to change.
And now, at a cost of €15 million, it is betting that even its concrete relics can have a second act.
You may also like: 6 free walking tours to get to know Benidorm better
Images: Ayuntamiento de Benidorm
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