'Downright wrong': Bristol CEO's club comments land badly with Bears fans

Comments made by Bristol Bears CEO Tom Tainton have caused a stink among the club’s fanbase this week, with some branding his description of the PREM outfit as ‘awful’, ‘tone deaf’ and ‘clumsy’.

Bristol are known for their high-profile recruitment, the likes of Wales winger Louis Rees-Zammit and USA Sevens star Ilona Maher all making a splash at Ashton Gate, and for the backing of billionaire Steve Lansdown, and are widely seen as one of the more progressive clubs in the Gallagher PREM when it comes to its branding and fan engagement.

However, Tainton’s reported description of the club this week has left fan noses decidedly out of joint in Bristol.

Tainton, who took over at the Bears last July, is reported by The Independent to have made the comments at the Sports Pro event in London, where he described the club as more of a ‘marketing agency’ than a rugby club.

“At Bristol Bears, we don’t call ourselves a rugby club”, Tainton told the Independent this week. “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.”

The CEO also suggested that what players bring off the field in terms of brand and exposure is a big factor in their hiring and not just what they do between ‘white lines on a Saturday’.

“There is no point going to market and spending marquee money on a player and just expecting them to do something between the white lines on a Saturday… In the grand scheme of things, nobody remembers how Bristol got on against Harlequins two years ago. They will remember how a player made them feel.”

One popular poster on X wrote: “It’s been 24 hours and I still can’t get over how awful this statement is from both a marketing and a rugby point of view. My toes won’t uncurl.”

Another, admittedly non-Bristol fan, even likened his comments to the infamous Gerald Ratner gaffe from 1991, where the jeweller branded his products as ‘total crap’.

“Car crash of an interview that should go down in history with the likes of Gerald Ratner. If I was a Bris fan I’d definitely be writing to him/the owner. Sport is primarily about sport and he shouldn’t be in the position if he doesn’t know that.”

He wasn’t the only one making the comparison, another describing the comments as “clumsy at best – I would say grossly crass, verging on insulting to supporters/people who have played and love the game and are Bristol”, while another wrote that they had “been quite angry about it. Trying to look for a wider view/more level-headed approach but can’t think about it with any clarity other than the comments being downright wrong, outrageous and infuriating.”

Others pointed to the realpolitik of Tainton’s sentiment, even if it didn’t land well with the fanbase.

Rugby writer and commentator Sam Roberts offered a partial defence to Tainton’s comments: “However funny and strange Tom Tainton’s words come across in print, he’s kinda right. To be a successful business, you have to have outstanding marketing. And my thoughts as to Bristol Bears will be down (a vast amount) to their messaging… Of course, the reason why his comments land so awkwardly with rugby fans is, we really don’t want to think we’ve been sold to.”