Why certain 'Bristol Bears' fans need to get a grip and get behind their club

If you had cared to look on social media over the last couple of days, you would have thought for all money that Bristol Rugby club were relocating to the moon. Or quitting rugby union to play competitive tiddlywinks.

A certain portion of ‘fans’ threatened to not buy season tickets, declared their club dead and/or attacked the club’s disregard of them.

What heinous act could possibly elicit such reactions from loyal and faithful fans?

Well, the club announced that it would be rebranding in June, when they will henceforth be known as the Bristol Bears.

Along with the name change comes a new-look logo, a nifty #TogetherWeRise hashtag and a mission statement, of sorts, about what it means to be a Bristol Bear. Think Saracens’ Wolfpack ideology, only ursine-themed.

NB: Two days on and Bristol are actually breaking club records for season ticket sales.

6⃣5⃣0⃣ season cards renewed in only 4⃣ hours
5⃣0⃣1⃣ sales in a single day was previous record
4⃣0⃣3⃣ sold in first 2⃣4⃣ hours upon most recent return to @premrugby (March 2016)

Tremendous support so far 🙌

Available online here ➡️ https://t.co/nsvYkOanm0 pic.twitter.com/0qjFqVVokp

— Bristol Bears 🐻 (@BristolBears) April 17, 2018

It’s an understandable lightning rod right now and there was always going to be a significant amount of fans discontent with the change, but my two cents, for what they’re worth, is bravo, Bristol.

You have just secured promotion and will be the first team of the modern era to enjoy the extra time to prepare for the Premiership season that the abolition of the Championship playoffs have created, you have a competitive squad which is about to be bolstered by the likes of Charles Piutau and John Afoa, you have young players coming out of the academy ready to push for starting spots and you have an excellent and ambitious coaching staff in place.

If, as a club, you weren’t looking to maximise your commercial opportunities and ensure that the off-field operation of the club continues to keep pace with the exciting on-field advances, it would be surprising and disappointing to me.

I’ll admit, rebranding in this manor is a hard sell to English sports fans. Most follow football, rugby and cricket clubs that have well over 100 years of history, have rarely – save the cricket – ever had need to brand themselves in any artificial way and for whom the traditions of their club are critical to them giving their support.

Modern sport is constantly evolving, though, and that may be truer in rugby than any other sport in the UK.

Football has been king of the castle for, well, ever, and changes there come slowly and are easily managed, but in rugby, a sport that is still learning to embrace its professional status and the influx of money – as well as rising salaries – that larger broadcast deals have brought, it’s a more turbulent and violent experience.

With the financial stakes being raised and the sport’s support still relatively small in comparison to football, sustainability has never been a more prominent issue in rugby and one of the primary ways the Aviva Premiership has attempted to help address that has been by trying to crack the US sports market.

The UK may have the second biggest sports market in the world, but it is dwarfed by the scope of their US counterparts, where broadcast, merchandising and endorsement deals generate dizzying amounts of revenue. To want a piece of that pie is completely understandable.

The Premiership has clearly taken the approach of trying to foster the rugby union market in the US and whilst short-term gains may be minimal from that, the long-term gains are potentially game-changing.

The then-Guinness PRO12 did not have that luxury of being able to play a longer game in 2017, with the need for funding to compete with the Premiership and Top 14 desperate and going down a path of including South African sides, already established teams from a hotbed of rugby, made more sense for that competition.

If the Premiership wants to keep up with rising salaries and the riches of the Top 14, then appealing to this growing US market is critical to ensure the Premiership teams can operate sustainably, whilst still being able to retain their star players and lure world class signings from other competitions. The benefits of this move are already beginning to be reaped, with the Premiership’s title sponsorship deal with US insurance giants Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. reported to be worth double the deal that was in place with Aviva previously.

If a few Premiership clubs need to rebrand to ensure that deals like these continue to happen and that US interest in the Premiership continues to grow, then so be it.

One of the more frustrating things about the vocal minority of Premiership rugby fans is their desire for new and improved revenue streams, but their reluctance to do anything to achieve them. A sense of entitlement, something which plagues the country outside of sport and is arguably responsible for a lot of other issues faced by the current government, is not going to appeal to new fans.

Bristol’s rebrand, honestly, is going to have very little effect on how its fans and how long-time Premiership rugby fans view the club. They will still be referred to as Bristol by the majority, their history and tradition will be respected and other than a different logo on the kit, it’s going to be business as usual for the club.

Unfortunately, history and traditions don’t win over new fans. What does the US sports market care for what Bristol did in the late 1800’s? Nothing. For that supporter base, rugby, particularly Premiership rugby, is something fresh and new and there is much more emphasis on what the club is doing now, what it plans to do in the future and how it’s going to accomplish that, than what used to be. It’s an attitude that plenty of English sports fans might benefit from, too.

There is speculation that the Premiership’s recent link-up with Gallagher will prompt more rebrandings, with Gloucester Rugby interestingly having trademarked several new crests in February, with the lions of their current crest playing a far more prominent role. The Gloucester Lions, anyone?

The annual derbies with the Bath Centurions promise to be positively gladiatorial.

Ultimately, if Premiership rugby doesn’t want to be reliant on benefactors subsidising its top clubs, then it needs to be commercially savvy and it needs new and more fans. One of the key ways to achieve this is to have identifiable brands.

This will upset no end of traditionalists, but this is what modern sport is.

If you want rugby on the TV at all times, if you want it to be a truly global and if you want the Premiership to be the flagship competition in the sport, then these are sacrifices you need to make.

Bristol have nothing but my applause for taking a proactive and progressive approach to how they market their club and I look forward to them picking up a few wins next season and the outrage about the Bristol Bears being forgotten faster than a Piutau sidestep.

Watch episode one of the Rugby Explorer with Jim Hamilton

Ex-Scotland international, Jim Hamilton, travels to Singapore to explore the city and find out more about the rugby scene in the Southeast Asian country. He meets up with the national team captain and several local players.