In defence of Bristol Bears CEO Tom Tainton’s rugby marketing comments
“At Bristol Bears, we don’t call ourselves a rugby club. We are a marketing agency that plays rugby. Yes, our players have to be competent and able to deliver on the field, but if they are not bringing any value off the field, that genuinely factors into our recruitment conversations.”
Those were the words of Prem Rugby club Bristol Bears’ chief executive Tom Tainton, and it is fair to say that they have caused a stir over the last couple of weeks.
The club were forced to back down and clarify, arguing that the words were taken out of context in an answer at a sports conference relating to the West Country club signing the likes of Louis Rees-Zammit and Ilona Maher.
But he needn’t have bothered. Because he is spot on.
Bristol Bears hit back
Bristol Bears – whether the fans like it or not – have become a catalyst for cultural influence on the game in England. They play exciting rugby and sign players with personality: from the bulldozing and straight-talking Ellis Genge to the aforementioned darling of Penarth, Rees-Zammit.
Looking at Bristol Bears as a business rather than a sports club is the exact approach that can power them into markets beyond the pitch. The game is complicated and there are too many rules; new fans need to be drawn into the game and that happens through personalities.
“This comment was unfortunately taken out of context in a news article which has since sparked considerable debate online,” a Bristol Bears statement said. “To reassure our supporters, while we are proud to be different at Bears, our number one priority is performance.”
But it is not like we haven’t seen this before. England Rugby effectively spun their women’s team into the Red Roses as a marketing ploy and it has proved genius, while the likes of the Springboks, All Blacks and Wallabies play on a brand rather than their traditional South Africa, New Zealand and Australia tags.
DeChambeau-style
Further to this, players need to be branded in a way Cristiano Ronaldo, Coco Gauff and Bryson DeChambeau are. Matchroom dipping its toe into rugby, with Eddie Hearn signing Finn Russell and Henry Pollock, is only natural in the evolution of a sport that has been professional for three decades but so often still feels amateur.
Promising Saracens winger Noah Caluori presented an award at a glitzy London sports dinner last week alongside the likes of CBS Golazo’s Kate Scott and Team GB skeleton gold medalist Matt Weston. These are the exact rooms Tainton wants his players in, and he shouldn’t need to clarify that ambition.
If you asked many of the people who claim to be fans of Wrexham about football, a number of them – especially overseas – wouldn’t be too forthcoming with an answer, but they’d know about the owners and push for promotion. It is the Ted Lasso-fication of sport, and that’s fine.
And the wider Bristol Sport organisation has itself been a pioneer in this space, selling a stake in their women’s football team to multi-club investors Mercury 13.
Tainton is bang on, and we shouldn’t berate him for laying out the pathway to rugby security, and therefore success.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11