New Yorkers can be forgiven for not quivering with anticipation. They’ve already undergone the Tavern on the Green bidding-war hype cycle twice since the restaurant declared bankruptcy in 2009.

Plus, they never went there much in the first place.

But next year’s proceedings are likely to be under closer scrutiny than ever. For one thing, it will be the first time since Robert Moses christened it that it will share the name Tavern on the Green. A licensing agreement for thename was purchased for $1.3 million in September by a group of managers from the most recent incarnation, will soon adorn an international franchise of taverns around the world. (Ready for Tavern in the Green Zone?)

Second, the city has decided that, cultural relevance notwithstanding, the Tavern matters. Two years without playing host to every New Jersey high school graduate and Westchester County bride has cost the city and state $2.2 million in revenue and $3.7 million in sales tax, according to an audit published by City Comptroller John C. Liu’s office Monday.

Like many of the architectural gems dotting the city’s parks, the Parks Department leases Tavern on the Green to private companies for either a flat annual rate or a percentage of gross receipts. (Most recently, Tavern turned over 3.5 percent of its revenue to the city; Danny Meyer’s Madison Square Shake Shack contributes 4.5 percent.) The comptroller’s report blasted the department for letting the Tavern sit empty for so long, and for not providing proof that it’s using a fair and competitive bidding process to fill it.

The audit gives voice to a growing concern among city labor groups and  advocates that the park’s concessions are being mismanaged under Assistant Parks Commissioner Betsy Smith, a friend and neighbor of Mayor Bloomberg’s. Parks vendors account for 91 percent of the city’s concession revenue, yet oversight is minimal.

“When you look into how few people they have to monitor concessions, it’s unbelievable,” N.Y.C. Park Advocates president Geoffrey Croft told The Observer. “They need to hire many more human beings to track and to enforce the contracts.”

In April, a separate audit showed that the private vendors who run the park carousels were operating off the books and owed the city north of $450,000. In June, the Central Park Boathouse was investigated by the feds for employee sexual harassment and discrimination incidents. In August, Boathouse workers went on strike, claiming employees who tried to unionize were fired or intimidated by management, led by Boathouse restaurant operator Dean Poll.

Mr. Poll is also a key figure in the Tavern’s struggle. In 2009, while the restaurant declared bankruptcy and its famous Crystal Room was torn apart and auctioned off, Mr. Poll won the license to the space in a bid against Capitale owner Seth Greenberg and Warner LeRoy’s family. Although he had grown the Boathouse’s revenue significantly, Mr. Poll was never even able to hang an open sign at Tavern because he failed to reach a contract agreement with the New York Hotel Trades Council.

When negotiations dissolved entirely in May 2010, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city would solicit new proposals and that the unionized workers would be part of the deal. The Cipriani Group and Donald Trump expressed interest. Mr. Trump offered to pay to rebuild the Crystal Room out of pocket.

Instead, Parks allowed food trucks, like those of Rickshaw Dumpling and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, to operate where Tavern on the Green’s Crystal Room used to stand, charging less than $50,000 each in fees.

“It’s an embarrassment,” Mr. Croft said.

The food trucks are gone for the winter, but the Parks department aims to retain a low-key vibe. The department recently addressed Community Boards 7 and 8, representing the Upper West and East Sides, respectively, to announce that its RFPs would specify a casual dining restaurant with an outdoor café, a place morning walkers and strolling tourists can patronize without a car service and a months-out reservation.

“Casual dining, rather than a fancy establishment, reflects the needs of park users,” Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told The Observer.

Upper West Siders applauded the decision, according to community board chair Mark Diller. Invoking Frederick Law Olmsted, Mr. Diller told The Observer that a casual dining restaurant better serves the democratic mission of New York’s parks. Also, those late night soirées on the terrace got a little loud.

The Upper East Side community, on the other hand, asked the Parks Department to remove the word “casual” from the proposal request. The community board is dominated by preservationists, according to chair Jacqueline Ludorf, who favor a more formal approach.

“We wanted it to be white table cloth,” Ms. Ludorf told The Observer, “not checkered.”

Real purists, however, might prefer the Tavern’s current shabby-chic state.

“Before it was turned into a restaurant in the ’30s it was where sheep that grazed on Sheep’s Meadow went at night,” Mr. Diller pointed out.

At least one applicant thinks the definition of casual dining is still up for interpretation.

“No one’s seen the request for proposal yet,” Louis Bivona, managing partner of online specialty foods store Tavern Direct, pointed out.

Since 2007, Mr. Bivona has used the Tavern on the Green trademark on a line of gourmet products that includes marinades, dipping oils and cookies. A percentage of the proceeds benefits the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, following a business model Mr. Bivona said was inspired by the late Paul Newman’s brand, Newman’s Own.

He became involved in the charity through his friend, America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh, who founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after his son Adam was abducted from a Sears. Mr. Bivona thought the cause would resonate with the LeRoy family because Mervyn LeRoy produced The Wizard of Oz, which is about a young woman displaced by a storm and under the threat of a Wicked Witch, he explained.

When Tavern went bankrupt, the court put a cease and desist order on the business, and the city reclaimed the name Tavern on the Green, then valued at $19 million. Mr. Bivona and his partners—CEO of the bankrupt Tavern Michael Desiderio and its young inheritor, Jenny Oz LeRoy—put in a bid for a new lease but were denied, despite promising $30 million more in city fees than the winner, Mr. Poll. Instead, they bought what they could: forking over $1.3 million for the brand.

They are now assembling a group to submit yet another proposal, the only bid that will allow the space to maintain its name.

For Mr. Bivona, a formal atmosphere isn’t necessary to Tavern on the Green, but special occasions are part of its DNA. “People always say, ‘I’m not a New Yorker but I go there when I’m in New York,’” he said. “Or, ‘I’m not a New Yorker but I got engaged at Tavern on the Green.’”

David Beahm, a celebrity event designer, agreed that Tavern’s allure was strongest for non-New Yorkers. “It was a destination for out-of-towners when they really wanted to put on the dog,” he told The Observer.

“If you put ‘Tavern on the Green,’ on the invitation, you didn’t even have to list the city or state. Everyone knew,” Mr. Beahm said, “That’s what makes it special.”

Richard Peña, former chair of the New York Film Festival, chose the Tavern for the festival’s opening night black tie parties because its “strange glamour” was a trip for foreign filmmakers. “You felt you were in what Lionel Trilling called the Shakespearean ‘green world,’” he said. “You were in the city but felt far away.”

“When we reinvent the Tavern, we want to incorporate the park more into the atmosphere,” Mr. Bivona said. “The park brings a lot of charm.”

Even if Mr. Bivona and Mr. Desiderio’s group does not win the bid, Tavern on the Green will likely live on. The license on the name gives them the right to franchise Taverns on Greens worldwide (so long as they’re outside the tristate area). He and his partners plan on opening Tavern on the Green brand restaurants in the U.K., the Middle East and particularly in Asia. Tavern on the Green ranks in the top five New York City destinations in Korean travel guides, Mr. Bivona said, and the restaurant used to spend hefty sums promoting itself with the Japanese tourist bureau.

We asked how he will replicate the Tavern on the Green imprinted in our memories, especially now that all of its trappings have been auctioned off.

“The awnings, the topiaries ...,” he said, trailing off. “You’ll know it’s a Tavern on the Green when you walk into it.”